Belated Praise for the Boy Scouts

“Regrets, I’ve had a few / But then again, too few to mention.” Those lines come from “My Way” (sung by Paul Anka, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Sid Vicious among others), a nostalgic review of the events of a person’s life. They apply to me, as well. With the big seven-oh fast approaching, I cannot help but acknowledge some of my regrets. I will share one with you.

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was growing up in Dallas, Texas, I was a Cub Scout. That lasted perhaps three years and consisted of weekly meetings hosted by the mother of a neighborhood friend. She took us on field trips (I remember the Dallas Morning News, an Indian pow-wow, the Ford plant on East Grand Avenue, parades downtown, a bakery and the Dallas city jail—if you can believe that), and we attended monthly gatherings in the auditorium of Edwin J. Kiest Elementary School. I quit Cub Scouts when my family moved five miles west in the summer of 1963.

I was later brought into a Boy Scout troop which met at a local church, but my involvement lasted no more than six months. It was headed by two or three men, probably fathers of some of the other guys. My fellow Boy Scouts were a rambunctious group, as is typical for male teenagers. I went on one (1) camping trip, and I recall only that I tumbled down a mountain and got a bloody gash in my left hip.

I suppose that, as an insecure junior high school student, I did not like wearing the Boy Scout uniform, as it was “uncool.” Here, then, we go with the regrets. Why did I care if somebody snickered at me in my pale green uni? Simply being in Boy Scouts was—I thought and assumed others did, too—anything but hip. To counteract this and related misperceptions, I direly needed a male mentor. I do not mean to be overly critical of my father, but he lacked the skills to guide, instruct and motivate me. Oh, how I wish he would have told me and shown me that being in Boy Scouts and truly applying myself might have significant long-term benefits. Instead, I bailed.

A positive example was right at hand. My cousin, Allan Cox, was the same age as me. But he and his father (“Dub”) had a strong and healthy relationship. Allan went all the way—camping out in dozens of interesting places in Texas and Oklahoma, eventually earning Eagle Scout. Then as now, it called for 21 merit badges, including First Aid, Citizenship in the Community, Citizenship in the Nation, Citizenship in the World, Communication, Cooking, Personal Fitness, Emergency Preparedness (or Lifesaving), Environmental Science (or Sustainability), Personal Management, Swimming, Hiking (or Cycling), Camping and Family Life, along with a service project of some kind. I recall attending a ceremony in which Allan and two others were bestowed with Eagle Scout honors. I shook his hand and stated how I respected his accomplishment. It had taken sustained effort, and did it not help him? The result was a deeper, stronger, more rounded person. Of that, I have no doubt.

Also indicative is how Dub and Allan bought a broken-down Fiat convertible, hauled it to their garage and worked on it over a period of three years. I used to think, “They’ll never get this done. They might as well give it up.” How wrong I was, because they turned their Fiat into a fine-running car and one that surely meant more to them than if they had just purchased it from some lot in South Dallas. Again we see how Allan learned valuable lessons—not just in repairing the engine, transmission, brakes, electrical system and so forth of an Italian sports car, but in starting a tough job and sticking to it.

We both graduated from high school in 1971 (me from Bryan Adams, him from Lake Highlands). I went south to Austin, and he went west to Lubbock. Allan wanted to be an architect, and it is quite possible that his Boy Scout experience had helped him choose that field. He graduated from Texas Tech, got a master’s from the University of Virginia and spent 30 years or so doing preservation work for the city of Alexandria. He has had a fine career. Not to denigrate myself, but I was an undeclared major at UT until my junior year and only chose history because I knew I could pass enough courses to graduate; the next few years saw me laboring at a series of blue-collar jobs that must have worried my parents. I did, however, eventually get some traction in the field of writing and editing.

I feel certain that if I had stayed with the Boy Scouts as my cuz did, I would have profited enormously. I would have found a good male mentor, a man to listen, discuss and then kindly point the way. Whether or not UT was the right school for me, I would have been a more focused student, not floundering and wasting precious time. I would have learned about setting and achieving goals.

A friend, Dr. Tom Beets, serves as a Boy Scout leader in Kilgore in east Texas. Tom (an Eagle Scout himself) tells me about two-week backpacking trips with his guys in Cimarron, New Mexico and similar adventures. When they are going up and down mountains in the rain, these young men may privately grumble or wish they were back in their comfy homes, but I say they are very fortunate. Under Tom’s wise and careful tutelage, they are having experiences and learning lessons that will carry them through life.

I realize that Boy Scouts of America, a 111-year-old organization, has had its share of trouble and scandal in the form of sexual abuse, lawsuits, attacks by gays and transgender persons, and declining membership, and that it is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Even so, I believe that its basic values of responsible citizenship, character development, unabashed patriotism and self-reliance through the kind of rigorous outdoor activities engaged in by Tom and his Boy Scouts are worth preserving. They surely live by the familiar motto, “Be Prepared.”

Finally, I refer you to this short list of Boy Scouts who went on to great things—Richard Lugar, Bill Gates (as well as his father), Michael Dukakis, William Westmoreland, Martin Luther King, Neil Armstrong, James “Red” Duke, Michael Jordan, Steven Spielberg, George W. Bush, Hank Aaron, Bill Bradley, Nolan Ryan, Walter Cronkite, Sam Walton, Michael Bloomberg, Gerald Ford, John Wayne, Bill Clinton, Wynton Marsalis, Ross Perot, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Buffett, Don “Big Daddy” Garlits, Lloyd Bentsen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, James Lovell, Harrison Salisbury and Robert McNamara.