The Scouts / Cub Scouts

starbelgrade

Were you ever a member?

Do you have any stories to tell?

If so, post 'em here!




To start off, I joined the cubs when I was 5. I was a year younger than the allowed age, but as my brother had just joined and as we were inseparable back then, they made an exception.

It opened up a whole new world to me at the time.. new friends, new experiences & some odd new regimes. The camping trips were always the best part. Even though they were mostly done in damp, wet Irish summers, we still managed to have the craic & get up to all sorts of mischief.

There were some oddball leaders, some sound ones & even some hot female ones.

I kissed my first girl on a camping trip when I was 8. She was a blonde girl guide who looked like Drew Barrymore in ET. Well, that's how I remember it anyway. For all I know, she could have looked more like ET.

I learned weird words like "goggle", how to tie knots, use a compass & how to wear a garter. (:o).

It was an experience that I grew out of by the time I was 11, but it was still an experience that I remember and if I could go back to those days of sitting round a campfire, singing "Come By Ya My Lord", I would probably pass, but I also wouldn't deny that they were formative times, which for the most part, I enjoyed immensely.

melekalikimaka

starbelgrade wrote: »

I learned weird words like "goggle".

it's 'woggle'

starbelgrade wrote: »

singing "Come By Ya My Lord"

it's 'Kum bay ya, my Lord'

starbelgrade

melekalikimaka wrote: »

it's 'woggle'



it's 'Kum bay ya, my Lord'

I just Woogled that.

You are indeed, correct!

Dangerous Man

I was a cub-scout. I was made a 'sixer' and was very proud. However, a guy who was there longer than me was pissed off that I got the gig ahead of him and started talking **** in the middle of inspection. Now, this guy used to give me a hard time in school and for whatever reason I just thought, 'fuck this, I'm putting this guy in his place' so I grabbed him and slammed him against the wall and told him to shut up and stand at attention. It felt good. It was probably the first time in my life (aged seven) where I felt like I was fully in control.

melekalikimaka

was in them for a long long time. good times

Tubsandtiles

I was in the cubs, had some great times in them and made some good friends. I remember during the trips where you would spend the night we would get up too all mischief, the leaders would be cracking up . I had some hot leaders too and funny enough was good friends with a young lad who went on too star in Angela's Ashes .

starbelgrade

Dangerous Man wrote: »

I was a cub-scout. I was made a 'sixer' and was very proud. However, a guy who was there longer than me was pissed off that I got the gig ahead of him and started talking **** in the middle of inspection. Now, this guy used to give me a hard time in school and for whatever reason I just thought, 'fuck this, I'm putting this guy in his place' so I grabbed him and slammed him against the wall and told him to shut up and stand at attention. It felt good. It was probably the first time in my life (aged seven) where I felt like I was fully in control.

Apt username by the sounds of things.

Micky Dolenz

Be Prepared.

Ron DMC

starbelgrade wrote: »

To start off, I joined the cubs when I was 5.

Surely you joined Beavers at that age, and not Cubs...

Pdfile

how'd you think i gots meh name... :cool:....

we'llallhavetea_old

aw cute!

starbelgrade

Ron DMC wrote: »

Surely you joined Beavers at that age, and not Cubs...

There was no Beavers at the time.

minidazzler

If I ever make the mistake of having kids they are going into all sorts of those things! I never was in them and feel like I missed out alot.

Oranage2

My parents wouldnt let me join the scouts/cubs because they didnt want to see me molested!

Micky Dolenz

Oranage2 wrote: »

My parents wouldnt let me join the scouts/cubs because they didnt want to see me molested!

Heh, sucker. That was the best part.

Sir Gallagher

minidazzler wrote: »

If I ever make the mistake of having kids they are going into all sorts of those things! I never was in them and feel like I missed out alot.

..like putting them up for adoption. :pac:

Mr. Incognito

ex cub, scout, explorer belt and leader

Scouts rocks!

sam34

was never allowed join brownies or guides. cant particularly say I feel I missed out on much. the girls in my class who were in the group always seemed like do-gooder Pollyanna types.

Chaotic_Forces

Oranage2 wrote: »

My parents wouldnt let me join the scouts/cubs because they didnt want to see me molested!

Well said!

Bob_the_dog

I was in the cubs for 2 years and then moved house, went to enroll in the cubs in my new area and they were full but said they would contact me as soon as a place came up.

25 years later I'm still waiting on that bloody letter

Vicxas

Beaver, Cub and Scout here. had to stop when i went to college. Might go back if i get the chance.

Herb Powell

We went to Castletownbere/Allihies camping for a few days, it was mad craic

lamai

Oranage2 wrote: »

My parents wouldnt let me join the scouts/cubs because they didnt want to see me molested!

Maybe they were jealous

Son Of A Vidic

I intended to join the scouts but failed, I remember going with a mate into a local school. When we arrived, there was no sign of Pedolord the Scout Master. But some pr1ck, slightly older than us started ordering us about. He ended up pushing me and I floored him with a right hook. Thus ending my potential scout career, yet thankfully perserving the purity of my 'ring'.

lamai

I was in the scouts. I still have 2 very good friends from the scouts, friends for life. Sometimes at xmas you will meet some other ex scouts and you get telling stories.:D

Great times and some of the best times of my life

sidneykidney

I was in the cubs then the scouts, then i went into the venturers ( i tihnk that was the name for them) I made some really brilliant friends, some that i am still close friends with to this day.

They really were great craic to be in, all the skills learned, and the craic that was had, always look back at those days with a smile

Sticky_Fingers

* Awaits Snypers reminiscences about he helped many a young rascal earn their "Our Little Secret" merit badge by letting them dib dib dib his woggle

alwaysadub

I was a Brownie, a Girl Guide, a Scout, a Venture Scout and am now a cub scout leader for the past few years.
I love it. Gets me out and about. Hard work at times though!

BeanMunch

Long time scout here. Without a doubt the best organisation I have ever been a part of. Having left school now the friends that I have kept in touch with most haven't been school friends, but scout friends; you really bond with people in scouts like nowhere else. The sort of freedom and responsibility they give you at 12/13 is brilliant- really makes you grow up as well as being a great thrill. I remember doing a 16km hike when I was 12 with gear, in the pelting rain for half of it, and then facing into setting up camp, lighting a fire and cooking- it really toughens you up.

Seperate random point: I always thought it was funny that I would always pick up more injuries in scouts than in rugby and I used to play rugby 5-6 times a week. You can tend to go a bit wild with the freedom in scouts .

iPlop

I was a beaver ,cub ,scout and venture ,I went to many places Germany ,Isle of Man ,Austria all over Ireland ,Midnight Hikes across mountain tops some of the best times of my life were had.I used to love going to the regional shield in larch hill.Building your base camp ,camp fire ,all that stuff was great.Every second weekend we were doing something

Larch hill was great crack.

snickerpuss

I was in an Irish speaking troop of cub scouts for a few years. (NERD!) Loved it!

Went on trips down to Wicklow and to the zoo and generally just had loads of fun. I left because all the other girls left leaving only me.

Retrospectively, this makes no sense since all my friends at the time were boys and largely, they still are. Maybe if I'd joined the brownies I'd now know what the hell to say to fellow girls but I probably wouldn't have had the pleasure of beating all the boys at arm wrestling when I was 8. Ahhhhh...

Coriolanus

I was in it briefly, always regret that I didn't keep it up.
I do remember one weekend long camp up in the Wicklow Mts where we were made swim relay races through a series of trenches dug into the bog and filled with water. Bizarre, but great craic. And playing Green Berets in the dark, taking turns to hunt and be hunted with the other squads. :pac:

BeanMunch

Nevore wrote: »

And playing Green Berets in the dark, taking turns to hunt and be hunted with the other squads. :pac:

Wide games are IMMENSE craic!

vampire of kilmainham

nope was never in any of em joined the FCA at 14 though that was in the days when you could do that and a blind eye was turned really enjoyed my few years there joined the army then as a cadet and became an officer...

vampire of kilmainham

Bob_the_dog wrote: »

I was in the cubs for 2 years and then moved house, went to enroll in the cubs in my new area and they were full but said they would contact me as soon as a place came up.

25 years later I'm still waiting on that bloody letter

what will you do if it arrives:D:D:eek::eek:

Kersh

Joined Ballymun cubs when I was 8, but moved to Swords at 10, straight into 3rd Flight scouts, all the way up through Scouts/Venturers/Explorer Belt in 94, then onto leader.

Great times. The transition from Scout through Venturers and over to the other side to be leader is interesting. Leaders got up to more mischief than the scouts

As a scout I went to Isle of Man, various Melvins around the country, Boyle/Portumna etc

As a Venturer I walked the length of Loch Lochy and a lot of Loch Ness on an annual camp. And in 94 I did the Explorer Belt in Scotland, walking 200k in 10 days through Newton Stewart/New Galloway/Dalbeattie/Fort and up to Torphichen between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Great times, and any kids I may have will be sent straight into Beavers

Notorious97

I joined the beavers when i was old enough, and then onto the cubs, i didn’t bother with scouts after cubshaha

Cubs was great craic though, camping trips, Larch Hill (correct me on name haha) with all different cub groups, huge football tournament was good fun, but there was a year or two when place was destroyed in cow shi*e i hated that part haha

Ah the good old days, before life got cruel.

LadyMayBelle

Brownies, Girl Guides and Rangers aged 6-17 and Scouts 11-17..great times and encourage anyone to get involved! Travelled abroad to Jamborees an International scout Centres, such craic, and great, great memories.

Have also jut signed up to be a leader at my local Girl Guide troop just this week..never leaves you!

Kasabian

I was thrown out of the scouts.

We tied the hands and feet of the annoying kids with all the new knots we had learned and rolled them down a big hill.
Their parents were not happy.

Misty Chaos

I was in the beavers and had a good experience with it when I was 7 - 9, It was a good experince. Still have the end of year medals from it.

I can't really say the same for the cubs and scouts, though. At the time I was there, I wasn't exactly the type who was keen on taking orders ( or outdoor hiking for the matter - my body doesn't like temperature extremes ) and got a lot of grief over it. The only reason I was there was because my brother was active in them for years and I was strong armed into the scouts.

I did meet a girl in the scouts but the slagging I got from my brother and his friends in the scouts over that scarred me for life!

That being said, I do regret not having more patience or interest in the scouts, it was a maturity thing on my part as a few years later, at 17, I joined up with the FCA and fortunately, was able to take orders that time! ( though I'm no longer in them )

WoollyRedHat

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Be Prepared.

For what?!?

I can't remember a damn thing from scouts. I think I remember how to play starship, port, whatever that game was called but everything else was wasted on me. It's no fun without bears.

flyton5

I was in the Walkinstown troop (94th if I remember correctly) from Beavers through to Venturers. My parents thought it would be a great way to get rid of me and have some peace for a few weeks every summer as I was nothing short of a jumped up little shít who was always in trouble.

Pretty much every trip abroad the leaders would threaten to send me home. My record time for the threat was on a trip to Austria. The bus had only gone as far as Dun Laoghaire before I was given the warning.

There were two leaders who would've been slightly slow. One guy called up to my parents before a trip away begging them to get me to behave myself as "it was his only holiday that year and he didn't want me to ruin it." He was probably in his 50's and I was about 12.

The other guy was a good deal younger and I called him Frank for my own amusement. This really pissed him off which I thoroughly enjoyed. On a trip to Larch Hill I stole his new mobile and ran the assault course. Unfortunately he didn't have the smarts to realise that if he hadn't given chase I would've given it back. Cue leaders and scouts breaking their shíte laughing as he chased me through the assault course. This was repeated several times throughout the day.

This bit of reminiscing has put a smile on my face for the rest of work. Hope I didn't bore too many of ya.

seamus

Jaysus that all brings me back. My Dad was our Unit Leader while I was a cub and a scout so I generally moved up younger than than everyone else. I remember being a sixer after two years in the cubs, and a PL after my first year in scouts.

The freedom is funny. A group of us as APLs and PLs went camping on our own in Larch Hill, completely sanctioned by the leaders. I couldn't have been more than 14. We stuck our tents up, built a fire, and then spent the entire weekend smoking, setting off fireworks and eating junk food.
Went into Venturers then. We were far too cool to build campsites and sleep in 8-man tents, so our expeditions consisted of sleeping in two-man easy-pack tents and playing football while we laughed at the scouts doing stupid things like putting up their tents badly and spending half their day working at building a campsite.

Then the scouts would be told by the leaders that they had to cook our dinners. Or even better, we sat with the leaders eating fry-ups cooked on gas stoves while the scouts were struggling with some mushed-up crap that they rolled up in tinfoil and put into the embers to cook.

Ah yes, Venturers was great, I loved it. Had to give it up before my leaving cert and because it was getting in the way of valuable drinking time. Not that we didn't get our fair share of drinking in. I remember 8 of us arriving into an Irish bar in Berne, all 16 years old, stoked to be drinking legally. We ordered a beer each, then another, then a drunk at the bar gave us 40 free pints. Bizarre. Everything else was a bit of a haze. There was a World Cup match on (1998?) where Michael Owen missed a penalty.
We all stumbled back to our hostel and the leader who'd come with us (fully aware of our hammeredness) dragged us out of bed at 7am to get food and get the train back to the troop. That train journey was murder. Needed to puke the whole way.

There was also an incident in another troop's cabin in the Dublin mountains where me and a mate managed to down a bottle of Vodka each in the space of about an hour and spent the next 5-6 hours passing out and puking and passing out and puking. We got banned from that cabin for that.

Always wanted to go back and be a leader but I kind of lost touch with everyone else in the troop. I might have a looksee at some point.

Morag

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=617

Scouts and Guides forum.

flyton5

Sharrow wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=617

Scouts and Guides forum.

There's always one who wants to ruin the fun. :rolleyes: