Boy Scout Manuals

Try Amazon, you can find damn near any Army Field Manual ever written so you maybe be able to find a Pre-PC Boy Scout Manual.

That's something I've often thought to start collecting... Boy Scout handbooks. They really are useful little books.
I am a huge believer in the Boy Scout program. It kept me of off drugs, kept me alive on several occasions, and taught me a great many things I put into practical use throughout my life.
I'm not going to go so far as to say Every Boy should be a Scout... but it's a good idea. A damn good idea.

I agree that not every boy should be a Scout, especially in this "new" PC Scouting y'all have referred to. I think like the Olympics, Scouting needs to get back to its roots and strip everything away but the basics.

I also disagree with the "Every boy an Eagle Scout" idea especially with many Eagle projects being contrived and suspect at best and rampant cheating and shortcuts on merit badges. Its not so much the kids fault as it is the program which has evolved into something Baden-Powell would have never envisioned. A Scout in my old-fashioned mind is still an outdoors-oriented, Daniel Boone wannabe, like I was, not the PC burdened ghost of its former self. Baden-Powell envisioned Scouts as boys who were ready to not only survive but thrive in adverse conditions that they might find thmselves in during a future war or personal misadventure/emergency.

Why is it almost every good thing devolves to cater to the libs and PC morons? Why? Seriously, Why? What ever happened to the good old fashioned ability to tell the whiners to fuck off and stand your ground?

The getting back to the basics of scouting is a dream of mine. That would be awesome. Modern Scouts are very different than the Scouts I grew up in. We camped, hiked, hunted, skinned, burned and ate... all out in the woods of Washington State. We also fished and my troop had 2 small sail boats at Point Defiance. We'd go to Ft Lewis all the time for camping. Hill AFB too. Got to fly the C-141 simulator there... I barrel rolled it and then promptly crashed it. It was great. But it was the Soldiers at Ft. Lewis, and the Guardsman that was our Scout Master... those guys were huge influences on me in a way my distant and disinterested father never was. Dad never took me fishing. Took me shooting only a couple of times.. and I mean twice. The Scouts... they saved me. My oldest boy just got back from a week long camp out with the Scouts up in the High Uintahs. He had a great time and learned alot. Proud of him. Next time I have a day off, I'm taking my boys fishing.

The LDS church is the largest sponsor of Scout troops and they flat out told the BSA the Church would withdraw from the BSA if it allowed Gays into leadership / membership positions. The BSA can't afford that to happen and so it fights. Otherwise the BSA is a growing disappointment. I am on the local Scout Committee and its a joke unlike when I grew up.

I would rather the Church did withdraw from the BSA and form its own program based on the old time fundamentals.

The Scouting program was pretty lame until I got into the higher level program that was more outdoors. Explorer and Adventure scouts... That was the good stuff.

I've found this link:

http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/s4b.html

Apparently the full text of Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys in pdf format.

I've found this link:http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/s4b.htmlApparently the full text of Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys in pdf format.

That looks great, with a nice up to date listing of 1954. Should be good reading. Thanks.