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We certainly try to have fun with patches. Another person that brought fun to the hobby was Pappy Reinegar and the Texas Trader’s Den.
I don’t remember who all was in here but certainly Bill Price (of the pocket illustrated OA patch book fame), John Bibo, Robert Frizzell, Steve Ross and many more.
We came a cross a couple of their flaps from the 1970s one of which is this week’s quiz. Do you know what PGIT means?
One eBay seller, from Texas, even uses this as his handle. Doctoral question: Why were the feather drops made the way they were?
Here are a couple for you. Do you know what these abbreviations mean? (We do.)
The first one is a term I’ve only heard of in Scouting although it probably should apply to many other areas as well.
This next one I’m surprised that it got through the system. Its a World War 2 term from the military that is not good (technically its obscene).
Got a question in that comes up from time to time. Is the patch in the following picture a red and white council strip?
The answer in this specific case is no. Here’s why. The convention is that if the city exists and the strip does not say “Council” or some variation then it is a community strip. There was a Kit Carson Council headquartered in Albuquerque, NM that changed to Great Southwest Area in 1976. But there are also two “Kit Carson” cities in the U.S.. One is in Colorado and one is in California.
As with any rule, there are a few exceptions but it is hard to think of them. For a long time, the “GREENWICH” half strip has been associated with Greenwich Council and probably is from there but there are other Greenwich cities so it really should be considered a community strip. The “BOSTON” half strip is considered to be a council strip as there is not another Boston other than in Masachusetts.
P.S. Thanks to Roger Schustereit for bringing this to my attention.
Information is now out for the Detroit Area Council annual trade-o-ree. It will again be held at Livonia Mall, Livonia, MI. Location is Middlebelt Rd and 7 Mile Rd.
Hours are Friday 11/9/2007 from 4pm to 11pm and Saturday from 8am to 4pm.
For more information registrations call 313-533-6470 or 248-669-9787. All proceeds to benefit the DAC Boy Scout Camps.
PDF 2008 Dallas Boy Scout TOR promotional flyer
The great team who put on the Dallas TOR, Ron Aldridge and Dave Thomas, are now taking reservations for their 2008 Trade-o-ree in January. This is their 30th annual TOR. It will be the largest national show in 2008. It is also the ISCA National Conference so there are display competitions, education sessions and forums and always great fellowship.
Click the link for a PDF of the flyer. The dates are Friday January 18th through Saturday the 19th.
Also, the Stevensons are hosting a visitation/open house on the 17th. From their recent e-mail :
4 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD COME TO DALLAS JANUARY 17-19, 2008
1. THE STEVENSONS HAVE AN OPEN HOUSE THURSDAY, JANUARY 17 FROM 4pm ON. BUFFET SUPPER WILL BE SERVED & THE STORE WILL BE OPEN WITH OUTSTANDING BARGAINS.
We will send you directions from the TOR hotel upon request.2. THE DALLAS TRADE-O-REE IS FRIDAY-SATURDAY, JANUARY 18-19.
3. THE NATIONAL SCOUTING MUSEUM IS OPEN EACH DAY 10am TO 5pm AND IS ONLY ABOUT 4 MILES FROM THE TOR. HERE IS THE LINK TO THEIR WEB SITE
WE MAY HAVE SOME FREE PASSES AT THE OPEN HOUSE, BE SURE TO ASK US. We will send you directions from the TOR hotel upon request.
4. WE LIKE TO VISIT WITH OUR FAVORITE CUSTOMERS FACE TO FACE.
I was working with a great patch – the 337 F1. This specimen is particularly nice because it is uncut and unfolded. Most were folded and even cut down to the border of the eagle. Also, this patch came with the person’s membership card dated 1947.
The 1948 OA Handbook on page 19 shows some lodge emblems that existed at the time. Included in this group is the 33 F1. As the Morley-Topkis-Gould first flap book points out, this is probably the first “First Flap.” The actual date of issuance is not confirmed but it could have been as early as 1943 so it pre-dates the Otyokwa. Did the 337 guys see the lodge 33 guys at the 1946 Grand Lodge meeting and decide that would be cool to have a pocket flap?
337 was also involved though in another patch design migration.
Their first solid, possibly the first “rolled edge First Solid” flap, came out at the 1953 National Jamboree along with one of the prettiest JSPs from that jambo for Chippewa Valley Council.
Now look at the lodge 300 Peta S1 first flap from Montana.
Obviously it came from the 337 design but who did it? Was it a member from 337 that moved to Montana ( the headquarters city was home to an Air Force base so could be very transient)? Was it a professional Scouter? Was it from the jamboree participants?
Also, what other roving patch designs are out there?
Reported by the AP, Scout badges recalled over lead concerns, a company that supplies the BSA with Cub Scout totem badges has issued a recall for these badges. They were sourced from China and have been found to have higher than acceptable levels of lead in the paint. There’s a whole website devoted to problems with stuff coming out of China.
Apparently the BSA has been sourcing from a company in Georgia for the past eight (8) years and distributing about 20,000 items a year. The company is calling for a voluntary recall of the badge and asking parents to take them away from their children.
There have been some recent articles in ISCA about merit badges. One part of the discussion was questioning whether merit badges were made using silk thread. We brought this up a couple of years ago as we offered up narrow tan merit badges (circa late 1930s to 1945) that identified versions embroidered with silk thread and versions embroidered with cotton thread. This change over in thread types occurred sometime during the WW2 years. The collectors of adult insignia or youth rank badges have known of the thread difference for at least a decade (see Terry Grove’s books on Eagles or Paul Myers’ books). Some collectors of merit badges though have still been in denial. Unfortunately Terry and Paul’s work was ignored by some merit badge experts.
Well, as we have been preparing the auction of a very nice collar pin collection we opened up one of our favorite reference books Uniform Badges and Insignia the BSA published in 1933.
Going into the book, there is a section on merit badges. In black and white they note that the patches are embroidered in silk on khaki cloth. 
I am not sure what better documentation to come up with for those still in denial.
The title is probably mis-leading. This is not about OA lodge jacket patches but OA lodge patch jackets. Yes, there are such things. I recently added one to my collection which already may well be the largest in the country. Now I have four. 🙂
Here’s the newest addition. Its from Lodge 110 Michigamea with their rare 1969 NOAC contingent patch on it.
Others that are in this “world’s largest” collection is one from Katinonkwat Lodge 93 out of Ohio:
Lodge 139 Ah-tic from Pennsylvania:
And one from Ahtuquoag Lodge 540:
What is nice about the 110 and the 540 is that they are dated.
Finding out what is even out there is a problem. I had one from Seminole lodge 85 that I let go to a friend of mine who is from that lodge. Other than that, I’ve not seen many. What can you report as existing? My guess is most of these were for contingents or lodge leaders. Probably most were locally made at local sporting goods stores that could do chain stitch embroidery for varsity letter jackets. They generally appear to be from the 1960s. There must be some more after that although I am not interested in ones that are just a patch sewn on a jacket. They need to have some sort of ’embellishment’ to qualify.
As an addendum – this ‘collection’ isn’t just limited to OA jackets. Another interesting one is one from Camp Betz of Pokagon Trails Council in Indiana. I don’t know the year but its felt on felt. Probably from the late 1950s.
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