Anthony and Scouting: Descides Not to Join

Recruiting

I remember when I was in second year at our secondary modern school one of my friends who had been wearing long trousers for sometime turned up at school one afternoon wearing lovat green short trousers. As I mentioned, there was no uniform at our school. When I asked him why he was back in shorts he told me it was because he wanted to join the Boy Scouts. Another boy at school tried to get me to join the Sea Cadets and he told me that if I did join then I wouldn’t have to wear shorts as they wore bell-bottom trousers as part of their uniform.

Decission

I was interested in joining, but for some reason never did. A boy I was friendly with who went to another school was in the Sea Scouts and I remember asking him if his Scout shorts were lined. He told me it depended upon the sort you got. If they were Scout Shop shorts then it was more than likely that they were unlined.

Some Thoughts

On reflection I wished I’d joined a youth group like the Scouts when I was a boy. My problem was that I was very much a loner and a poor mixer with my peers as I tended to relate to people much older than myself. But what put me off joining the Scouts most of all was the uniform. Especially after I started wearing long trousers and I suppose I didn’t quite relish the thought of going back into shorts again. However, I was once told that I suited shorts more than I did long trousers, but not even that would have given me grounds to start wearing them again. Yet the Scout uniform was a smart one and one to have been worn with pride rather than embarrassment. I did make a half-hearted attempt to become a Senior Scout when I was 15, which would have meant a return to shorts, but surprisingly enough it didn’t even bother me at the time. I only stuck it out for three weeks. Now as I look back, and through the reading I’ve done on Scouting, I’m kicking myself for not joining as I’ve missed out on a hell of a lot. I freely admit, it’s one of the biggest regrets of my life not joining the Scouts. You may say if it was the shorts that put me off joining, then why didn’t I join the likes of the Air or Army Cadets and has been mentioned, the Sea Cadets or even ther Boys Brigade who all wore long trousers. These in my opinion were too militaristic and in a sense, they reminded me too much of school because of the discipline in volved. One’s boyhood is a time to be treasured and savoured and my boyhood in effect ended when I put on long trousers for the first time. If I had joined the Scouts then perhaps my boyhood could have been slightly prolonged every time I put on my Scout shorts?

Anthony









HBU





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Created: August 17, 2003
Last updated: August 17, 2003