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Watching more of "The World at War". It's hard sometimes to believe that all of that really happened. We set entire cities on fire. That just staggers me to think about, now, even though it seemed routine when I was younger.
I was born in 1961, and as a child, the War (capitalized) was a constant background presence, a sort of prelude to the birth of the world. As I was growing up, it seemed to exist in some indefinite past that had been there before I was, that had been there before anything I knew, even though most of the adults I knew had been involved in some fashion, or at least (like my mother) remembered it as children. With the perspective of age, I see how short a time it had been over in the mid 60s, and how badly some of the adults I knew were still freaked out by it.
*****
So, the Boy Scouts are changing their name to "Scouts BSA", because they're going to let in girls, and want an 'inclusive' name. One does wonder what the "B" in "BSA" stands for, then.
Quite apart from that, I thought they'd already changed their name a few years ago to "Scouting USA".
I was in Boy Scouts as a child, but hated pretty much every minute of it. Exactly why I stuck it out as long as I did, I don't know. Actually, I do know. I was indoctrinated with the idea that walking out on something that's wasting your time makes you a 'quitter' who can't handle challenges.
Cubs and Webelos was fun, but our Scout Master was fixated on woodcraft and primitive camping, neither one of which interested me. I did learn how to roll a joint, make home-made firecrackers, and make an emergency bong from a beer can with only my Scout knife for a tool, so I suppose it wasn't an entire waste.
What I really wanted to be in was Campfire. They were much more about learning useful, real-world skills, self-actualization, and community service. They had this fascinating thing with beads, too, where you got beads of different shapes and sizes for completing tasks, instead of the patches that Boy Scouts got. It looked like a great deal of fun, but up until 1977, they were for girls only. They became co-ed when I was 16 years old. I could have joined at that point, and indeed I thought about it, but I'd have been starting out ten years behind everyone else, and only remained eligible for a year and a half or so, so I didn't. I rather wish that I had, now.
I was born in 1961, and as a child, the War (capitalized) was a constant background presence, a sort of prelude to the birth of the world. As I was growing up, it seemed to exist in some indefinite past that had been there before I was, that had been there before anything I knew, even though most of the adults I knew had been involved in some fashion, or at least (like my mother) remembered it as children. With the perspective of age, I see how short a time it had been over in the mid 60s, and how badly some of the adults I knew were still freaked out by it.
*****
So, the Boy Scouts are changing their name to "Scouts BSA", because they're going to let in girls, and want an 'inclusive' name. One does wonder what the "B" in "BSA" stands for, then.
Quite apart from that, I thought they'd already changed their name a few years ago to "Scouting USA".
I was in Boy Scouts as a child, but hated pretty much every minute of it. Exactly why I stuck it out as long as I did, I don't know. Actually, I do know. I was indoctrinated with the idea that walking out on something that's wasting your time makes you a 'quitter' who can't handle challenges.
Cubs and Webelos was fun, but our Scout Master was fixated on woodcraft and primitive camping, neither one of which interested me. I did learn how to roll a joint, make home-made firecrackers, and make an emergency bong from a beer can with only my Scout knife for a tool, so I suppose it wasn't an entire waste.
What I really wanted to be in was Campfire. They were much more about learning useful, real-world skills, self-actualization, and community service. They had this fascinating thing with beads, too, where you got beads of different shapes and sizes for completing tasks, instead of the patches that Boy Scouts got. It looked like a great deal of fun, but up until 1977, they were for girls only. They became co-ed when I was 16 years old. I could have joined at that point, and indeed I thought about it, but I'd have been starting out ten years behind everyone else, and only remained eligible for a year and a half or so, so I didn't. I rather wish that I had, now.
