Issue 635 – March 31, 2020

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Remember my “Rule 26”? Here it is: A bought neckerchief slide is gonna get lost; a hand-made slide, never!

I’ve seen lots of photos of Scouts recently. Some are of boys in their Scouts BSA troops, and some are of girls in their Scouts BSA troops. Most are in pretty good uniforms—especially the girls, by the way! But their neckerchiefs? Ouch! They’re disasters!

Yup, some neckerchiefs are well-rolled, with their “tails” kept in place by slides. Sometimes, these slides are the official ones Scout shops sell, but more often they’re rubber bands or a length of string or—occasionally—a shotgun shell brought back from summer camp and cut to accommodate the neckerchief’s tails.

But mostly they’re tied…not with the “friendship knot” and the ends of the tails, as is done in many foreign Scout associations, but, instead, somewhere below the chin, making the neckerchief look more like a scarf or mis-tied ascot. Ugh!

It’s as if nobody’s taken the time to look in their Scout Handbook (or checked out www.bsahandbook.org), where there’s a specific guide on how to roll your neckerchief and keep it is place with a neckerchief slide—never a knot!

I still have the very first slide I made for myself… Yup, it’s well over 60 years old and, of course, since I made it by myself, I never lost it!

Wouldn’t this be an absolutely perfect time for every Scout and uniformed adult leader in your troop to make their own personal slide!

They can be carved (as a Scout I carved the Indian head, the longhorn steer, a Viking—my own design—and a bunch of others).

They can be braided into a “Turk’s head” (these are really cool to make—I have a bunch of them, made from pre-woven lanyard material, leather thongs, and—the easiest to find at any hardware or outdoor store—parachute cord!).

They can also be made from plaster-of-Paris molds and then hand-painted!

These can be a fun “solo” activity or even a contest for the most creative, most colorful, most artistic, and so on!

Not only will your Scouts have an activity they can do at home, but just think about how cool your troop is going to look once we’re all able to meet together again!

Till next week, please stay safe, stay healthy, and stay positive!

Happy Scouting!
Andy

Have a question? Facing a dilemma? Wondering where to find a BSA policy or guideline? Write to askandybsa@yahoo.com. Please include your name and council. (If you’d prefer to be anonymous, if published, let me know and that’s what we’ll do.)

Although these columns are copyrighted, any reader has my permission to quote or reproduce any columns or column parts so long as you attribute authorship: “Ask Andy” by Andy McCommish.

[No. 635 – 3/31/2020 – Copyright © Andy McCommish 2020]