Ed Basar, probably the top Region 7 OA collector in the country, stopped by yesterday. We were going over a letter Paul Myers sent about a leather patch that he got in from the estate of a former lodge advisor for Kepayshowink lodge 89. Attached to the patch was a note that it was the first Kepayshowink patch. Paul had asked us to do some research on it. Neither Ed nor I had ever seen it before. Very neat item.

This lead us into a discusion of Michigan OA issues which both Ed and I collect. What struck us in this discussion was that separately we both came up with the same lodge as being the hardest to collect for lodge neckerchiefs in Michigan – Indian Drum Lodge 152. I then dug out my 152 collection and began showing Ed several N/Cs that he didn’t know about. We then went into Blue Book and found N/Cs listed that I didn’t have and N/Cs that I had that weren’t listed. Basically, I don’t think anyone knows all of the neckerchiefs this lodge has. Oh well… its the hunt that keeps us going.

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The following is an article purportedly from Paul Harvey that someone sent me today.

If I Were the Devil
By: Paul Harvey

I would gain control of the most powerful nation in
the world;

I would delude their minds into thinking that they had
come from man’s effort, instead of God’s blessings;

I would promote an attitude of loving things and using
people, instead of the other way around;

I would dupe entire states into relying on gambling
for their state revenue;

I would convince people that character is not an issue
when it comes to leadership;

I would make it legal to kill unborn babies;

I would make it socially acceptable to take one’s own
life, and invent machines to make it convenient;

I would cheapen human life as much as possible so
that the life of animals are valued more than human
beings;

I would take God out of the schools, where even the
mention of His name was grounds for a lawsuit;

I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind and
target the young, and I would get sports heroes to
advertise them; I would get control of the media, so
that every night I could pollute the mind of every
family member with my agenda; I would attack the
family, the backbone of any nation.

I would make divorce acceptable and easy, even
fashionable. If the family crumbles, so does the
nation;

I would compel people to express their most depraved
fantasies on canvas and movie screens, and call it
art;

I would convince the world that people are born
homosexuals, and that their lifestyles should be
accepted;

I would convince the people that right and wrong are
determined by a few who call themselves authorities
and refer to their agenda as politically correct;

I would persuade people that the church is irrelevant
and out of date, and the Bible is for the naive;

I would dull the minds of Christians, and make them
believe that prayer is not important, and that
faithfulness and obedience are optional; Hmmm…

I guess if I were the devil, I’d leave things pretty
much the way they are. ….Good day
——-

I wasn’t eaxctly thinking of it this way but on my way to work this morning I was thinking about the creeping relativism that is affecting our sense of standards. There are those who are arguing that there can be no absolutes (which is a contradiction in its own statement.) Some argue that if society has standards then it might dis-enfranchise people who don’t meet the standard. But, if one starts to degrade standards, then where do you draw the line? In the process of drawing a line, then some may be on the other side. And that’s ok. That is what is meant by there being a standard.

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I love it when these new websites that picture patches come up. I can pour over them for hours, I love to see stuff I’ve never had a chance to look at before.

Bill Lahman from Florida has been working on a great one for all the different era’s of Region insignia. Roy posted a link to it further down in the WebLog if you wanna take a look.

I never collected Region items really but I’ve always liked them and always payed pretty close attention to them over the years. I’ve been able to help Bill a little bit and it’s been a real pleasure to share what small knowledge I had with him.

This is one of those areas in our hobby that was red hot years ago but very few people really know much about today. Back in the 50’s 60’s and even early 70’s if you had all the Region patches you were a big time collector. A lot of them were restricted to professionals only so were super hard to get ahold of. The first photo page of the first book on collecting Scout badges (The Wabaningo Emblem Handbook) doesn’t picture the all powerful OA patches, it pictures region stuff. That’s how important it was to collectors back in those days.

In a collection Roy just bought there were three photographs from an early professional Scouters conference (probably 20’s vintage). In all three there were Region armbands visible of which I have never seen any!!! Apparently Bernie had a Region 2 one and somebody out in CA at least knows what the Region 12 one looked like but there was a Region 6 one that had never even been mentioned anywhere. Just goes to show you that what we know about vintage insignia isn’t all there is to know. This stuff is all out there guys, we just have to pay attention, do our digging, and root it out.

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I made the pilgrimage to the Indianapolis TOR this past weekend. Kit McCann (the Canadian guy) came along for the road trip too. Had a good time, if you missed it you missed a good show.

I really don’t go to this TOR for patches, it’s the food. The local Scouters put on their spread of chili-mac and hotdogs again Friday night as usual. It’s a donation deal, just whatever you want to throw in the can. That kinda food takes me back to childhood in Southern Illinois. Apparently chili-mac is a midwestern thing because I’ve never seen it in any other part of the country. I’ve eaten enough of it to sink a battleship over the years. I don’t want to hear any comments about how it shows on my waistline either. They had those big pork tenderloin sandwiches again on Saturday too. I eat one every year and love it but I think it probably takes 6 months off my life every time. Let’s see, I’ve been to the Indy TOR at least 10 or 12 years in a row so that’s……….

Had a good visit with Morris Cooper who I hadn’t seen in ages. He bought some killer Illinois issues from me too. *Yay Morris!!!*

John Hoffman came all the way from PA, I was surprised to see him as I don’t think he’d ever been to this one before. I like John a lot and think he’s a great guy but I hate seeing him at my local TOR’s. He always seems to find something really good really cheap. *wink* John had the color copies of his insignia collection on dispaly and MAN has he got some great stuff!!!!

Bob Rudd was there from KY tabled up with John too. Had a frame of tough KY conclaves and other OA out for sale or trade.

Had a good lunch chat with Bruce Shelley. Damn he’s a busy guy, traveling all over the world doing promotion work for their computer game company.

I bought a ton of stuff, oddball items for eBay and specific customers, stuff for Roy’s collection, etc. Probably the most interesting was a group of Philmont contingent items from NY all dating to the late 40’s. Also picked up a Lodge #40 neckerchief I’d never seen before and some other cool OA neckerchiefs. Lots of nice camp stuff too so be on the lookout for that during the next few weeks on our auctions.

Roy has started collecting National Jamboree contingent neckerchiefs and I managed to locate 8 or 10 of them for him. Anybody that’s got one or more from any of the different Jamboree’s just let us know cause he’s picking them up.

The big Indy auction had a few items of interest on it this year too. Dennis Cydlowski, Bruce Shelley, and I sat on the front row together and did some bidding. Boyd Williams and Bob Rudd went head to head on a #230 R1 running it up to $425 (it went to Bob). The Council has had some better OA donated to them that will be appearing on eBay in the next few weeks. The best, in my opinion, is a #73 Vigil Sateen but there are several other good Wisconsin OA items in the lots too plus some camp stuff and misc.

All in all a great trip. People say TOR’s are falling off all over the country but Indy is one of them that’s stayed good. If you haven’t been there before make plans to attend next year. But if you find anything good remember who told you about the TOR and offer it to me first. Heh-Heh

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The great purge continues. Here’s an interesting piece from Jeff Pommier circa August, 1964. It was a letter to members of the TRADER. He had just finished school and was immeninently getting married so he decided to sell his OA collection. As he noted, he used the standard TRADER CODING SYSTEM:

• F=Flap
• S=Solid
• N=Neckerchief patch
• R=Round
• X=Odd-shape
• J=Jacket patch.

Oh was life so much more simple back then!

Here are his asking prices: jeffpommierlst.xls

Note such things as
306 F – $0.75
370S (must be Moswetuset) – $1.00
496F -$0.75
504F – $0.75

His most expensive patches were the 47R (Hanigus) at $3.00, the 51 Shawnee J1 at $3.50, the 67 Anicus chenille at $3.50, the Blue Heron purple water at $4, and the 373 Carcajou at $5.00.

It is also interesting to see the numbers that he was missing. Some you would expect such as merged lodges 154, 155, 219, 447, and 448. But the active lodges he was missing included 74, 89, 90, 96, etc.. Those were killers back then because they were highly restricted. Most in the hobby have lost sight of that if they even knew about it. Most collectors these days were not around when lodges had these restrictions.

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My wife’s got me working on our basement which was my patch home for many years. It is in collectors’ blood to keep way too many things so I’m doing the big purge. But, in doing so I’m coming across many golden nuggets. Here’s one from something I must have clipped that is worth a read:

Life’s Mirror

There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are soles that are pure and true;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.

Give love, and love to your life will flow,
A strength in your utmost need;
Have faith, and a score of hearts will show
Their faith in your word and deed.

Give truth, and your gift will be paid in kind,
And honor will honor meet;
And a smile that is sweet will surely find
A smile that is just as sweet.

For life is the mirror of king and slave;
‘Tis just what we are and do;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.

-Madeline S. Bridges

I don’t know the date. It has to go WAY back. But, the thought is timeless.

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I’ve been collecting this area for years, sort of as a tie in to my CSPs and then later just as a stand-alone collection. Its a great area in that it is relatively limited, easy to start but has lots of challenge to finish.

For two reasons actually no one has completed the collection.

First, some of these were of extremely limited issue. A full order was a dozen patches. One could order as few as a ‘half-order’ or 6 patches. These orders got placed and were used by Council professionals or council-wide positions only. Others were used only by jamboree troops. One of the toughest was for Orange Empire’s contingent of 12 to the 1971 World Jamboree!

Second, we don’t yet know of what all exists. There are no records. The catalogers (right now lead by Dr. Blake Keasey) are reporting new finds every quarter in the ISCA journal. He and predecessors Art Hyman and Rob Kuts have been at it for years and we’re still making new discoveries. Just last month two new full size RWS were discovered: a ‘GTR CLEVELAND/C’ and ‘ALEXANDER HAMILTON/C’ with small council. That puts the known count of full-size (CSP-size) RWS at around 810 items.

Bruce Raver runs a nice web site that one should check out if you’re interested in this area. It is called RWS World.

This is a very legimate area of the hobby although 2003 this was ‘violated’ with the private issuance of some fake RWS. They are hard to tell but the lettering is off and the white thread, polyester based, has a pink tint to it due to the red base material.

Learn more and enjoy.

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Got a call from my dad this morning. The weekend paper reported in the obituaries the passing of a childhood friend at age 49. This brought back the memories of when we were kids.

I grew up in the country and there weren’t many kids my age nearby. Our next door neighbor had a son my age and a daughter two years older. Along with my middle brother, the four of us spent a lot of time together making forts, daming creeks, playing in treeforts and generally being outside. My family lives in a suburban neighboorhood. With Sara’s passing leading to the recollection of childhood memories, I can’t help but wonder how we’re doing in raising our children? On the plus side, my son has lots of friends within a block or two. Where I grew up, two houses weren’t even that close. We played outdoors most of the time. Now the kids play inside on the computer. Are we creating a generation of ‘Nintendo Babies’? I wonder.

Sara will be missed although its been nearly 30 years since we last played but the memories were good. To die so young, I thought it was cancer. And it was, sort of. As her oldest brother put it, she died of ‘liquid cancer’ – alcoholism. The family had made efforts over the years to help her but without success. I didn’t know this until this afternoon.

This blog now has two deaths reported and one last month that I did not write about. This is going to be an increasing occurrence for all of us of the ‘baby boom’ generation. Not only with the passing of parents but the passing of friends. Ouch.

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