>>1168855I don't miss BSA, and I was in it way before all the liberal shit.
Cub Scouts/Webelos were awesome. Mid 80s, just me and my friends, the den/pack leaders were our parents and they helped out to do camp outs, hikes, all that shit.
That all changed when we got to Boy Scouts. The lead scoutmaster was a very proficient outdoorsman but also a jackass. I never understood what his problem was, but he was almost always antagonistic towards the young guys, heavily favoring his established boys. The age gap between us and the older boys was something like 3 years, needless to say they were ruthless to us lol. They made it clear the troop dynamic was always going to be them vs us.
The assistant scoutmasters were totally focused on us all becoming Eagles even though only one of us was interested in it. At first, getting merit badges sounded cool--choose your own adventure! Nope, they would only let us get the mandatory badges for Eagle first, then we could do all the others. Fuck that
The troop was OBSESSED with going back to Philmont every couple of years. In theory that would've been a cool trip. But having heard how much of a taskmaster the scoutmaster was (and based on smaller hikes we did as a troop), we quickly realized Philmont was going to be more of a military ruck than a coming of age experience. Our interest dwindled.
Each meeting ended with a contest or race based on the stuff we learned at that meeting (this was in the '80s so we liked playing stupid games outside, running around doing combative shit, etc.), but every time we got split into teams in scouts it was us vs. the older boys who BTFO'd us every time. Fuuuuuck
After about 2 months one of my friends quit. The scoutmaster couldn't believe it and kind of berated him after he had left. Every few weeks afterward another friend stopped attending. It got less and less fun every meeting. All of us were gone before the 6 month mark.
I really lament that's how it ended, but I was miserable in BSA.
