Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Scouts and Epstein

I watched a documentary this evening about something that was a large part of my childhood. This was something that, for some reason, is frowned upon by people now a days and I seriously have no idea why. Maybe it's the dorky uniforms, maybe it's the mainly male groupings, but I will tell you what it isn't... the comradery. You see, I watched a documentary about a couple of boys who are in a Boy Scout troop in Harlem, New York. The film was called, oddly enough, 759: Boy Scouts of Harlem.
I was a Boy Scout in troop 160 in the mean streets of Everson, Pennsylvania for almost 15 years if you include the couple of years I was also an Assistant Scout Master. So this film touched home a little bit.

I sat there watching these kids go to camp thinking, man do I miss those days. I miss all of the good things I learned and all of the bad things my fellow scouts and I did. I miss all of the dumb shit we used to get ourselves into, like the time a couple of friends and I somehow got lost in the woods for six hours. How did we get out you ask? The only way a scout knows... follow the sound of the gun range. Smart cookies we were. And we missed the best lunch of the week which happened to be something we called chicken butt holes. I will let your mind wonder on that one a bit. I even miss the merit badge classes oddly enough. One of those very classes that really sticks out in my mind was wilderness survival, where we actually had to build shelter in the middle of the woods and stay in it for a night. Needless to say I literally did not sleep a wink. Hell I even miss taking the rookie campers out snipe hunting. I honestly never thought I would say that.
  
Now not that this has anything to do with anything, but if you don't know what snipe hunting is, I will tell you in a brief moment. But what you have to understand is the fact that these kids would literally take anything an older scout would say to heart. They were at a the young, exuberant, and stupid age of about 11 or 12. We were 17 or so. I mean for God sake, just to play with their heads a little we used to carefully take their whole bunks out of their tent and put them in a completely different part of camp while they were sleeping. Nowhere that they would be in danger of course, but somewhere that is unfamiliar. Completely harmless fun. So like I said, one of the traditions was to take the rookie campers snipe hunting. This, of course, is the act of taking a couple of them out in the woods, telling them what a snipe is (a completely fictional animal in which you could make up the details) and telling them to catch one. Seeing their faces light up with excitement was hilarious in its own right, but seeing them lift up dead trees, gigantic rocks, and romp around in water was the cherry on top. God I miss all of that.

Unfortunately, we all have to grow up. From the 25 years or so I have now lived I can say with 100% honesty that two of my biggest accomplishments came from scouting. One of those was that I was able to participate in a ceremony at the tomb of the unknown solider in Washington DC. Not many people can say they have done that and it is a very important tradition in it's own right. Also, I can also say that I attained the rank of Eagle scout, which is also a rank not many people can say they have achieved. A lot of hard work and dedication goes into that award and no one can take that away from me. Here is a picture of me at my Eagle scout ceremony where I was young and weird looking.



I have met hundreds of people through scouting and I still talk to a lot of them today. The stories I could tell you... But most importantly scouting was something that I can share with my father. That is the one thing that I know my father and I will always have between us.

With all of that said, why do people think scouting is such a faux pas activity these days? I would like to think it is because of the before mentioned weird uniforms. I mean have you seen the shorts? 1950 called and wants it's length back. But I honestly don't think it is that. What I do think is that people look at it as sort of a thing of the past, like you can't learn anything from it anymore. Well I take that comment and raise you this... After sitting here and thinking about it a bit, my scouting days were sort of like college in a sense. I was there for a very long time, learned a bunch of crap that I will probably never use, and I met a lot of cool freaking people along the way. I grew as a person physically, mentally, and socially in both of those activities and they were both very useful in many different ways. But I will surely say this, I will tie a square knot a lot more than using my knowledge of how to load a reel to reel player. You can take that to the bank.

I guess what I am trying to say is that scouting had a huge influence on my life and I really wish more people would consider it as a learning tool. I used to get made fun of hardcore for being a part of it but I never thought for a second that I would quit. My kids will be involved in scouting and hopefully their kids and their kids as well.

Also...

Something very tragic has happened and I had no idea it actually happened until a day or so ago. I don't usually do this sort of thing on my blog or Facebook unless this person had a pretty important impact on my life. So with that said... One of my favorite television shows of all time is the timeless stories of an inner city school teacher by the name of Mr. Kotter. Mr. Kotter teaches a class full of misfits by the names of Barbarino, Horshack, Freddie Boom Boom Washington, and Epstein. These four guys were better known as the Sweathogs though. Needless to say, this show was very good and in my opinion one of the most timeless shows of all time. If you don't believe me, here is a clip from one of my favorite episodes.



If that didn't make you laugh there is seriously something wrong with you. Anyways... the reason I am writing this is because of the fact that I had no freaking idea Epstein, or Robery Hegyes, died on Thursday from a heart attack. He was 60 years old. A tragic loss in the pop culture world and the television community, here is to you Epstein! I am going to watch the entire first season in your memory. You will be missed sir.


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