Or where’d the early OA lodges come from?

I’ve had two different conversations in the past two days on this subject so there must be some interest in this. I believe Tracy Mesler recently posted this question to Patch-L regarding lodge 35, the first lodge in Texas. For those who don’t know, Wichita Falls (Northwest Texas Council) was a small community in an out of the way part of Texas. It still is a small community in an out of the way part of Texas. So why did it have the first lodge in the state?

We were discussing this topic in our office yesterday. Many of the early lodges not in Pennsylvania, New Jersey or New Yorkcame out of promotions of professional staff from these areas to the new areas.

Paul Myers has done a lot of the research on this. Paul has traced how Execs from either Chicago (lodge 7) or St. Louis (lodge 51) took the OA programs they saw in these large, metropolitan councils to the remote councils when the got promoted. Actually, the move from Philadelphia to Chicago was through Carroll Edson being promoted to Chicago as Scout Executive.

Now I don’t yet know the answer to lodge 35 Wichita but in talking with Duane Fowlks today he mentioned how lodge 60 was founded by a professional who was one of four brothers who each had earned Eagle Scout, joined the profession out east, and then came west. Lodge 60 disbanded for awhile but when it reformed it was by a Vigil Honor member from Lodge 51 out of St. Louis who had moved to the area.

There really is nothing surprising about this. Scouting has always been about individuals giving of their time to provide a quality program to our kids. The OA program is a great program and easy to transfer from one community to another. Maybe I can those who have done some of this research to chime in. Who brought OA to your council?

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Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had different conversations with different retirees the common thread with them was their interest and time spent gambling. Whether at casinos in Michigan or Las Vegas part of their time was spent gambling. Clearly its a form of entertainment. They say they do okay at it. But I know the casinos were not built because the house always lost money. One person is at the level where he and his wife get rooms comped to them both here in Michigan and affiliated casinos in the Carribean. These casinos know their business and their customers. He’s got to be a net loser and in a pretty big way.

I think about those of us though that have a hobby. Maybe more retirees would be better off with a hobby. Even paying money for little Boy Scout patches, which may sound crazy to many, at the end of the day you still have a Boy Scout patch. And there is so much more that one can do within the hobby that doesn’t cost money (for example, researching out your local camps, early Eagle Scouts, jamboree troops, conclaves – the list of ideas is nearly endless). Further, in this hobby, the people are really nice.

There are a lot of us approaching retirement age. How many have planned for what they are going to do with their remaining time? Casino gambling can be fun and entertaining but the experience passes. With collections, you have something to show for time and resources.

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Heard from Mitch Reis today. Thought it worth saving for posterity. Mitch has done some very nice books on Scouting insignia so he knows his stuff.

Hi Roy

I just stumbled on your web log and loved reading through it.

I see you have pictures of a Fake Tenderfoot Achievement Patch.

Can I add the picture to the fake insignia section on my website?

Mitch Reis’ web site on BSA Fakes click here

I have a zero tolerance for fakes and want to spread the word wherever I can.

Mitch

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From Roger Schustereit:

Frank Hilton has done it again. He’s created the on line Otena history book listed below. Wow!!!! One new thing I learned is in the Lodge Newsletter section. Otena Lodge had a brotherhood pin! Something else to look for!!!! Enjoy

Otena 295 Lodge History Web Site

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Long time collector Ken Kittelberger just sent us current pictures of his Baden-Powell memorabilia collection. It is one of the most extensive collections in the world. With this being the 99th anniversary, I thought you’d enjoy seeing these as well.

If we think sports heros of today generate a lot of memorabilia or Elvis or the Beatles or Disney ….they had nothing on what went on in Victorian England at the turn of the last century. There was less mass media so there was less passing promotion about persons of importance. Instead, promoters produced a nearly endless supply of different wares.

Ken has produced several manuscripts over the years of documenting items produced. He’s regularly made trips to England and elsewhere in the hunt for new items for his collection. I remember Bernie Miller having a nice smirk when he out-hustled Ken on a find but also grimacing about the ones that got away.

Here are the pictures. Enjoy!

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I’m trying to archive these early felts that come through so that we can identify them later on. Here’s an early Camp Wauwepex felt patch from Nassau County Council.

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“You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call “failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down.”

— Mary Pickford

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On 12/18/05 this neckerchief, a Lodge 61 Shaginappi N1 brought $1,025. I don’t know if this is a record for a silkscreen neckerchief but its right up there. This has been a hot area in part because people didn’t collect them. In days gone by, say the 1970s through the early 1990s, you couldn’t hardly give these away especially the silkscreened ones. Now as folks fill in their collections they’re trying to find these and they can’t.

When there’s a new price point for something like this at auction, I like to look at the third high bid to see if it was just two guys going crazy against each other. In this case though, the third high was at $978. The fourth high was at $55.

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From time to time I’ve had come through our hands gold arrowheads and silver arrowheads as well as the current white arrowheads. The white arrowheads are well known as a Commissioner award. I had been told the gold was also but an earlier version. No one knew though what the much rarer silver arrowhead represented. One of the interesting finds from the Angus MacBryde estate auction was this from his collection. Given that he was in the Supply Division and had access to their records, I’m assuming that his write-up is correct. This would say that the silver was actually the early Commissioner award and that the gold arrowhead was a Scouter award. It would make sense as the gold, although uncommon, turns up more than the silver one.

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