John The Scout

                Scouting was very popular in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The Boy Scouts organizations with their numerous and varied activities for young men attracted many young members to their ranks.

            John was one of them. When he first heard about the scouts and saw the things they were doing, he definitely wanted to be a part.

            The first meeting for him was to be held in a - you won’t believe - a Protestant Church on Chestnut Street, down the street from St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church. In those days we as Catholics stayed far away from anything Protestant. Nevertheless John went. He was about 14 years old. From the very first session he was very motivated to participate.

            For the next 7 to 9 years he was an extremely active scout. He breezed through the ranks of Cub Scout and regular scout and soon began earning merit badges.

            For those who do not know to much about Scouting there are three distinct levels of achievement.

            First, a boy becomes a “Star” scout by completing 5 merit badges. To acquire one merit badge an individual had to complete a number of tasks or acquire a specific skill. Some of the merit badges earned were swimming, wood carving, basic electricity and life saving.

            If 10 merit badges were earned one is designated a “Life” scout. As almost everyone knows, if 21 merit badges are earned, then one gets to be designated, “EAGLE SCOUT”.

            After becoming a regular scout John became a star scout within a very short time. Within another short period of time he had acquired all the merit badges necessary for life scout.

            Then he set his sights on his next goal - “EAGLE SCOUT”. It was a very important goal for him. Some of the next merit badges attempted would be much more difficult and be much more time consuming, but he was not deterred.

            When summer camp came, and with that came a chance to earn many more badges. At summer camp he could devote all his time to earning merit badges - and that’s what he did.

            He acquired the remainder of his 21 merit badges within a year and became one of the few scouts that gets to that level.

            Like so many other things, he did not talk about it much, but you knew and all his family knew he was very pleased (and proud) with what he had accomplished.

            John was now an EAGLE SCOUT.

Post script: John was the only eagle scout in the family; in fact, he was the only eagle scout in the entire neighborhood.