World Scout Scarf Day 2017

When I was a child I was a cub scount. My mom even took the plunge with me and became a den mother. It was all a wonderful experience ... even though I did cry when my goldfish died — though he really didn't have a chance.

I was really into it all with the uniforms, merit badges, and various other doo-dads we wore to symbolize our achievements and rank. I believe I had just become a Bear scount when I departed for good. I remain unsure of the circumstances of my cessation of scouting but feel certain it was associated with one of those moves required of we "Navy Brats" ... but I still remember the many friends and memories of that wonderful time.

Today is World Scout Scarf Day

Now when I was a cub scout I didn't call my neckerchief a "scarf". I believed that boys wore neckerchiefs and girls wore scarves. Nowadays I believe the names are all interchangeable — with a scarf simply being a trans-neckerchief or something in keeping with the wasted English language which was at that time still so proper and well defined.

World Scout Scarf Day is one of those late efforts to instill meaning into the experience of scouts by wearing their neckerchiefs in public each August first. It's all very sweet and inkeeping with that promise I felt way back then when I was young and not yet the jaded old codger I am today.

The day has been promoted since 2007 and they even have a site now. The date is significant because it commemorates the first Scout camp in 1907. It is said that "once a scout, always a scout" and while I don't quite pursue things to that degree I view the day as important and revel in all the warm and fuzzies that cub scouts let me experience courtesy of my Mom.

Happy World Scout Scarf Day and if I still had my neckerchief I'd be wearing it !