Manila, Philippines. Circa 1958. I remember very little about my enlistment in the Philippine Cub Scouts, but there’s no refuting photographic evidence — I was in it. There was a guidebook, tasks to accomplish, skills to acquire. We must have gone on outings. I appear to have made acquaintances. I don’t recall any unpleasant moments.
The goal of the organization was to build virtue, self-reliance, good citizenship. As far as I know, it worked.
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John Dyer Writes 
Well then – we may correctly assume that you are virtuous, self-reliant, a good citizen, and nice looking, too! Well, self-reliant anyway – pretty virtuous – a good citizen, sure – ok, ok, and not all that bad looking, either. All that from the cub scouts? I should of joined!(wait, I did – what happened?)
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You had to be in Flintstone at the time. I presume you tossed cow patties and tamed skunks,
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Speaking of cub scouts, Mom enrolled me into the boy scouts in Flintstone, Ga. There were hikes in the woods, merit badges, and summer camp. It occurred to me to tell Mom the evening before going to summer boy scout camp that the scout master reminded us to each bring a pup tent. I didn’t have a pup tent. RiffGrmbleBiffxxx@@@###!!!!! (Mom)
Mom went into action – she found a pattern for a pup tent, had Yate’s Bleachery open back up so she could get xx yards of light, olive drab canvas, hauled them to her sewing machine and made me a pup tent – that evening! I learned some new words that evening, but by golly, I didn’t have to face the humiliation of sleeping out on the ground at scout camp! Mom was awesome.
post script – it ALWAYs rains at boy scout camp. I was sure glad that I had a tent.
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Mom was a worker bee. What a gal.
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Baby skunks were very tameable. Every boy had a slingshot (y-branch, rubber inner tube bands, smooth round stones, lots of practice). One did NOT throw cow patties at armed others. The world still works that way.
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In fact, one did not throw cow patties at Flintstone girls, either. They would run you down and smack you one ona back of you hed. (I still have a lump)
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I enjoyed Cub Scouts. Too bad we couldn’t afford the cost of enrolling me in Boy Scouts.
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Boy Scouts was never suggested to me. Either I didn’t do well in Cub Scouts, or my parents thought Boy Scouts would be too risky.
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