For those of us who collect camp patches, we know that many camp properties were used by other groups, often the Girl Scouts (although I doubt at the same time 🙂 ). We recently received the auction flyer for the California Inland Empire Council, BSA for this fall. It includes a wonderful example of this – Camp Tulakes.

This camp first started in the 1930s and was owned by Old Baldy Council. They sold it to Grayback Council in 1955. Grayback Council eventually merged into California Inland Empire Council in 1973. (From The Camp Book by Minnihan and Sherman).

We often get patches in where we know the name was used as a Boy Scout camp but the patch itself either “just isn’t right” or actually has the logo for another program. Conversely we’ve got patches in, often on merit badge sashes, but its not a Boy Scout camp. Many of these are or were YMCA camps that obviously the boy went to, probably with his troop, and thus put it on his sash.

In the CIEC auction they have the rest of this series of patches which clearly show Camp Tulakes was also used as a Girl Scout camp.

Actually, it was used by two different Girl Scout councils (or maybe it was like the Boy Scouts and the councils merged.)

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We’re starting something new here, what we’re calling “Legacy Interviews”. Technology is allowing us better than ever before to capture some of Scouting’s history, retain it, and share it with others.

Unfortunately our history is passing every day but we’re going to make an effort to capture it while we can. In this, our first “Legacy Interview” we interviewed Eagle Scout and Scouter Walter Helmreich. Still going strong at age 90, he joined Scouting in 1929 in Jefferson County Council, Jefferson City, Missouri. His father helped bring Scouting to Jefferson City. This council later became Lake of the Ozarks Council and then consolidated into Great Rivers Council.

Walter attended the 1933 World Jamboree where he spoke several times with Chief Scout Executive James E. West and even cooked corn for Baden-Powell.

In part 4 here, Walter discusses meeting James West, Bill Hillcourt, and Baden-Powell.

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We’re starting something new here, what we’re calling “Legacy Interviews”. Technology is allowing us better than ever before to capture some of Scouting’s history, retain it, and share it with others.

Unfortunately our history is passing every day but we’re going to make an effort to capture it while we can. In this, our first “Legacy Interview” we interviewed Eagle Scout and Scouter Walter Helmreich. Still going strong at age 90, he joined Scouting in 1929 in Jefferson County Council, Jefferson City, Missouri. His father helped bring Scouting to Jefferson City. This council later became Lake of the Ozarks Council and then consolidated into Great Rivers Council.

Walter attended the 1933 World Jamboree where he spoke several times with Chief Scout Executive James E. West and even cooked corn for Baden-Powell.

In this, part 3, Walter discusses going to the 1933 World Jamboree and seeing a very disturbing Hitler Youth rally in Munich prior to the jamboree.

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This is a Scout Legacy interview with Walt Helmreich. Walter, from Jefferson City, Missouri attended the 1933 World Jamboree where he spoke several times with Chief Scout Executive James E. West and even cooked corn for Baden-Powell.

I’ve broken the half-hour interview into four parts. These are standard flash files. Please let us know if you have any trouble with them. Also, please let us know your thoughts about these. We’re preparing some guidelines and interview questions so that maybe others could conduct these interviews and upload them as well.

In part two here Walter discusses early Camp Maries and the Jefferson City Council.

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We’re starting something new here, what we’re calling “Legacy Interviews”. Technology is allowing us better than ever before to capture some of Scouting’s history, retain it, and share it with others.

Unfortunately our history is passing every day but we’re going to make an effort to capture it while we can. In this, our first “Legacy Interview” we interviewed Eagle Scout and Scouter Walter Helmreich. Still going strong at age 90, he joined Scouting in 1929 in Jefferson County Council, Jefferson City, Missouri. His father helped bring Scouting to Jefferson City. This council later became Lake of the Ozarks Council and then consolidated into Great Rivers Council.

Walter attended the 1933 World Jamboree where he spoke several times with Chief Scout Executive James E. West and even cooked corn for Baden-Powell.

I’ve broken the half-hour interview into four parts. These are standard flash files. Please let us know if you have any trouble with them. Also, please let us know your thoughts about these. We’re preparing some guidelines and interview questions so that maybe others could conduct these interviews and upload them as well.

I believe that every Scout and Scouter has a story to tell. Some may not be as significant as Walter’s but we are all contributors to the Scouting movement. I believe we, this country, need to tell and share these stories. Our needs for leadership, leadership development, and the development of our youth have never been greater. The needs, and maybe the means, are different today than they were in Walter’s youth but our country is better off with Scouting. I’d hate to think where we’d be if we did not have a vital Scouting movement here.

In part one here, Destry and I introduce Walter and he discusses how he got into Scouting. I am struck by, frankly, how similar it is to today.

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That’s my position and I’m sticking with it. That is, that 50 years old is the new 30 years old.

How do I get there? Well, first I’m coming up to my 50th birthday so it brings it to top of mind. Second, a recent comment from my wife about having our son come and visit from California brought it out.

The situation: I was going over airline booking options with my step-son. He chose a morning flight that gets into Michigan in the afternoon. The other option was a red-eye that would get in first thing in the morning. He chose the morning departure/afternoon arrival. His mom though, upon hearing this, said “He’s young, why doesn’t he take the red-eye?” This would give my wife more time to visit with him although he’d be pretty wiped out from the travel/time-zone change. I replied, he’s not so young. She said, yes he is. He’s under 30. To which I replied, I’d have made the same choice as him and I’m almost 50. Thus the observation that 50’s the new 30. It certainly was funny to me at the time to me, maybe you had to be there, especially as my wife beat me to 50 (only slightly).

But, in further reflection, there is more to this than just spousal jousting. Demographic changes and life expectancies make this a more true statement than ever before. When Social Security was first implemented with retirement benefits set at age 65 the ‘dirty little secret’ was that most people did not live much past age 65. Thus there really wasn’t much of a benefit. Thus at age 30, one had 35 to 38 years left of life expectancy.

Compare that to now. I was talking with my brother’s father-in-law a week ago. He’s 73. He’s been told by the IRS, due to having to draw on his 401K, that he has a life expectancy of another 27 years or an even 100. That’s a median expectancy! Half the people his age now will live longer than 27 years according to the IRS.

So back to my thesis that 50 is the new 30. At the start of Social Security circa the late 1930s, one could expect to live another 35 years. Come forward to the 2000s and at age 50 my life expectancy is another 28 years according to the Social Security Administration. Not quite 35 but its not 15 either.

How is this related to collecting? We will be collectors for much longer than we might realize. We will have a much longer period to pursue our hobbies. We will have more extended retirement period than our parents or grandparents and thus more free time to pursue our hobbies.

After we handled Bernie Miller’s collections, I recall collectors asking why was Bernie still collecting when they saw him at trade-o-rees? I simply told them that although he sold off most of his collections, he didn’t die. He sold his main collections at age 74. He lived another 10 years. Why shouldn’t he have kept collecting? Its what he and Rita enjoyed amongst other things.

So besides, ’50 is the new 30′ there is an underlying message about our hobby and collecting. It is quite reasonable to assume that folks will collect much longer than they used to and that there is a real opportunity to bring in new collectors who are in retirement phases of life. They are out there. I see it from some of the questions and information sharing during our auctions or other e-mails. We need to think how to reach these folks and how to welcome them into the hobby.

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We are always scanning web-sites and auctions for interesting pieces of Scouting memorabilia. This past week an interesting patch blanket auctioned on eBay. (An aside – You have got to love patch blankets as you wonder if there’s a pony in there somewhere. Although, as one ‘patch digger’ said “As soon as I see that the patches were sewn on to a blanket or coat, I immediately drop my offer because the person has already indicated what they think their items are worth. Not much if it can be sewn on to a blanket.”)

Back to the story – the blanket had a number of mostly 1960s era patches out of the Del-Mar-Va area. There were some older pieces but in general not very note worthy. There was an interesting, at least for us red and white collectors, homemade strip that said “The Hague/Netherlands”. If it had been US made, “Katie bar the door” as the saying goes. But, since it was hand made, its a curiousity piece and nothing more.

What was interesting though, and actually much earlier than most of the other patches was a Type 2 Scoutmaster. Destry picked up on that it seemed wierd but he was thinking about the line-in-crown issue of this patch which was used only one year. No, this is the no-line issue that was used from 1920 to 1937 but what sets it apart is the style of the eagle and the way the feathers lay-out. Also, the knot hanging from the scroll is unlike any of the other knots. The eagle’s talons stretch into the petals of the FDL. Its almost like one of those “What’s hidden in this picture” puzzles.

Here’s a picture of the patch.

Note that the top of the eagle’s wings go straight across. The standard version has the eagle feathers following the curve of the First Class badge, a different hanging knot and many other differences. See below

In talking with one expert collector, he indicated that this issue is known in both Scoutmaster (white outline) and Assistant Scoutmaster (yellow outline) but that this is only the second straight-wing variety he has ever seen. Now, he has seen a lot of patches but we do not know what people have in their collection and don’t realize it. Maybe you need to go check?

Why this variety exists, we don’t know. It is probably due to a different manufacturer. It would make sense that there must be a production run of these unless they were a manufacturer’s sample that has gotten into the mix. This style of eagle, almost a more military style eagle, does not appear on other badges of this era or later for that matter.

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