Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Scouting about

A visit to the Scout Shop yesterday managed to take care of $120. We needed to buy three new shirts for our three new members of the local Sea Scout group - they're about to be invested. A Cub, a Scout and a Venturer - according to their ages.

There's a lot less formality about Scout uniforms these days. No so long ago Scouts would have needed a lot more Scouting accessories for formal occasions - felt hats, socks, belts, etc. Now they seem to have mostly gone. Dismissed as anachronistic in this modern age. Regarded as an impediment to attracting new members. But Scouts still have achievement badges, and this is what the shirts are partially for.

During the past few years we've had four teenagers in the Army Cadets. For a while I even became an officer with them. However we began to realise that Army Cadets were not for us. Membership was becoming more expensive as federal government promises for greater financial support failed to filter through to the troops, and it was apparent that the military chain of command wasn't all it was cracked up to be, particularly beyond the local unit level. A lack of transparency in the entire organisation was a significant factor in our decision to depart.

In comparison, Sea Scouts were much more youth orientated, offered more adventurous activities, and were certainly more fun. Furthermore, transparency is not as much an issue. This is not to say our kids didn't get something out of being Army Cadets. I'm sure they did, but there comes a time with membership of every organisation for an evaluation of whether or not to move on.

Our family has had a long association with the Scouting movement. My own experience started as a Cub during the early 1950s. The Scoutmaster's name was Dagg. He was a Boer War veteran, and I believe one of Baden Powell's original Scouting disciples.

Our own kids' Scouting endeavours go back over twenty years - first with a land Scout group which met in a hall at the end of our street. This was very convenient. But then the kids learned about Sea Scouts and refocussed their attentions on a unit on the waterfront in East Fremantle.

As with Army Cadets, any Scouting unit is only as good as it's leadership. Some leaders are very good, and some are pretty feeble. Fortunately we've never come across any paedophiles in either organisation.

Anyway, now we are back with the Sea Scouts and this has coincided with the return of a really top notch leader who went out of circulation about seven years ago when he became a senior Scouting commissioner at headquarters. He's been a member of the East Fremantle group since he was a Cub in short pants, so what he doesn't know about Sea Scouts is not worth knowing.

On the way home with the new shirts yesterday we had to call into a music shop for a trombone book. The one we needed had been sold to someone else ten minutes earlier, so we'll have to wait for them to get one in.

Then it was into Bunnings to look at whipper-snippers. We opted for a Pope electric model at $30. Can't expect cheaper than that, and it has a two year warranty. My wife gave it a whirl yesterday afternoon on our new bit of turf, and it did the job in a couple of minutes.

Several times yesterday my plumber son number four crossed my thoughts. A young woman had asked him to be her SCUBA diving partner on a professionally organised trip to Rottnest Island. There were reports last week of a 4.5 metre white pointer hanging about in one of the bays. I'd suggested that perhaps a dive trip was not a good idea, but he went anyway, and thankfully came home last night in one piece.

He started in Scouts as a Cub and progresses through all the levels to adult Rovers. Last year he became too old to become a Rover Scout and they gave him the good natured 'Order of the boot' with a plumbing theme. Now he's become a Venturer leader.

The boot picture is in the 'Treasure Chest' folder of my Picasa site. In the same folder is a news clipping about young plumbers which was brought to my attention this week. It's what I've suspected for a long time.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

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Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!