Webelos
 

For all those who went through the ranks, how many of you ever wondered where the Webelo (pronounced we blow) name came from? It was the strangest thing, I was a webelo at one point in my life, but the question of where the name came from never crossed my mind until this morning. Did they let the older kids come up with the names and pick one off their list? Here are some others that may have been on that list

Westiks
Wesux

Anyone know for real or have others that could have been on the list?

We will be loyal scouts. we be lo s. That was taught to us straight out.

As soon as I reached the rank of Webelo, the scouts turned from an arts and crafts activity group to a bible-thumping jesus love parade. I was OUT OF THERE!

I have no idea where the name came from.

Actually, until our Webelos leader broke his back in a car wreck, we had a blast. We'd go out in the woods and rebuild the old stone walls out there. One time he showed us how to shinny up trees and get them swinging back and forth so you could go from one tree to another wherever the trees were thick enough.

I know I wouldn't have stuck around lng as I did if it had turned to bible study. (I was a devout atheist from the age of three to sometime in college, when I became agnostic.)

bones got it. i was never in cubs myself, but was a boy scout from the day i was eligible until the day i was too old. my son is a cub scout now.

same here... it was the first thing we learned when we got our Weblos book.

I learned I didn't like camping, but still had to in the weblos. One year of that, and I was done.

I quit after Cub Scouts.
My brother and I kept getting shifted from one den to another, til it just got tiring.
Some kind of internal restructering of the dens in our area at the time.
We ended up in an all black member den and we didn't feel too welcome, so we quit.

Boy Scouts was the best activity, until about the age of 16. By that time, all my other friends had already dropped out and I was left talking to a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds. there was nothing to bridge the gap. So I drifted out. When I have kids, I will be an active dad and adult leader.

Webelos was great, we could actually go camping and do fun adult stuff. No idea where the name came from. Geeze I can't remember any of the ranks; cub bear wolf and there was something about an arrow or was it arrow points??

Webelos...I remember those days...then I had a similar experience as Halx...suddenly I was surrounded by bible thumpers. I ran for my life and I have come out mostly unscathed...except for the cross shaped scar on my palm...

Webelos was cool until Michael Jackson became our den mother. Then things got a little out of hand.

"But I don't want to touch your 'arrow of light'!"

I think I would leave about that time. :eek: I went all the way through to boy scouts, but didn't go for eagle scout. I hating the camping part. I don't like beans or slop.. err I mean oatmeal. You can't put enough sugar in that crap to make it taste okay. I spent a lot of time hungry at camp.

i only went as far as cub scouts heh.. super glued my fingers to a wooden car model.. ahh fun time

Yep, I bailed right at Webelos, too.

I always sort of hated cub scouts, and by the time I was a Webelo, I was old enough to say what I wanted to do for myself.

I liked Boy Scouts but it was hell getting my folks to pony up the cash and time for the thing so I kind of got kicked out of it right at Weblo. Looking back on it though kind of glad I didn't stay. While I like the outdoors I don't too much dig camping.

Back in the day, (Pre 1967), the cub scout ranks went "Wolf, Bear, Lion, Scout"...therefore "W B L S"...Webelos

Incidently, there is no such thing as a 'webelo'...Webelos isn't plural, so a single member is called a "Webelos Scout"

/Eagle Scout

I went all the way through Webelos, but never learned that. Quit before doing Boy Scouts though. We never really had a religious aspect as far as I remember, I was just less interested in all the hands on stuff of Boy Scouts by that time.

Eagle Scout.

Of all the ma'fuckers here...

I was a Cub Scout, recieved the Arrow of Light, but stopped before the Boy Scouts. There were around 150 Cub Scouts in our pack, only 8 Boy Scouts went on for any given year. Like Halx's and jonjon42's situations, the Boy Scout master was a bible-thumping tool. You think someone higher up would have noticed those stats and done something about the guy.

Did anyone go through as a Tiger before they were in cub scouts? I've heard mention of all the other ranks, but wondered if Tiger was only a regional thing.

I joined Webelos for two months to go on some trips with a friend. After the trip I didn't have any use for it.

*extends left hand for handshake*

Tigers is quasi-cubscout, but is a national thing. It's run seperately from the normal Cub packs.

i started as a tiger... and made it all the way thru cubs thru boy scouts... got my eagle and a month or 2 later my troop completely fell apart...

I felt it then and I felt it now...Webelos has no place in scouting.

I mean, first off, the name is honestly really, really stupid. Webelos. It's not like it rolls off the tongue. In fact you kind of grimace as you say it. Webelos wobble but they don't fall down? And the fact that half the people that were Webelos don't know/remember what the name stands for offers up further proof that it's a wasted experiment.

One of these things is not like the other:
Cub Scouts
Webelos
Boy Scouts

Sorry, I'm ranting now, but I never felt like Webelos was a necessary transitional phase. Why can't you just go from being a Cub Scout to a Boy Scout? Of course, I just derailed my own thought by going to the scouting website and noticing even another designation, the Venturer, which you can be until you're 21. I also noticed this little quote on the website:

"...this is to begin promoting Boy Scouting when Cub Scouts are still in their Tiger, Wolf, and Bear dens, and to sell the sizzle of the great outdoors." No matter what they called it, they did sell me on the sizzle.

(I only made it to Life, the one before Eagle, before I got a car and stopped going to scouts, hence my bitterness)

I was a YMCA Indian Guide, now they were cool. I was Weblo for about a year, if that and it was nothing like Indian Guides. Hal's right it was very religious, whereas Indian Guides didn't have anything to do with religion, it had to do with teaching you to believe in yourself and American Indian culture. And the friends I had from my tribe at age 6 are today my friends we are scattered but we shared something and it has stayed with us all these years.

Too bad the Indian Guides don't get the recognition the Boy Scouts do.

link on the Father-Son Indian Guides: http://www.conejovalleyymca.org/indi...ram_story.html

A weird coincidence, my wife was a Y Indian Princess in her youth.

Ok, Indian Guide is a much sweeter name than Webelo. The name alone has sizzle.

What the hell is a Webelo? And I was an indian guide with my dad years ago. :D

After webelos I quit. In boy scouts the next closest person to me in age was 3 years older... no fun.

I had a whole lot of fun in Weblos, this guy's dad was pretty high up at the air force base in town, and we did some great stuff. I had fun, and alot of my friends were some of the few that stuck with it past cubscouts. I quit after weblos, becuase Boy scouts suddenly wasn't cool anymore.
Weblos was almost like the pinnacle of cool kids stuff. Girls weren't as important part of your life as they would soon become, and you could still be a kid and enjoy cheesey kids cubscout stuff, but you could go overnight camping, shoot guns instead of BB's, really learn about building a fire, etc.. and really get into it.

Wish now I would have stuck it out, because there are very few things you can do as a 15-16 year old that can still help you when you're 40. Only one I can think of is becoming an eagle scout. It sticks with you, and I've seen numerous resumes that throw on those two words. Has nothing to do with anything, but it's still respected.
At the time, though, middle school pressure to conform got the best of me.

Yup, he has it.

I am a 27-year veteran of scouting. I also serve on my district's training and planning committees so I can veryify from the source that he has it correct.

In today's world, the name seems kinda lame. But, the concept was started quite some time ago. A lot of the concepts of Cubs and Webelos come from Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book"

As far as some of the comments of people dropping out because of bad leaders, I here it all of the time. Unfortunatly, there are bad leaders all over the place. That is why I sit of training committees to insure leaders get the proper training, but, we can't force it.



/me adds name to list of Eagles soaring here in the TFP.

Another Eagle Scout here. Don't recall much religion being pushed on me. Did a lot of camping and learned some camping/hiking/survival/navigational skills.

I was a Cub Scout, a Webelos Scout and a Boy Scout. Never made it to Eagle, though. I was one merit badge short of Eagle, and the counselor for it was a prick, and hated my guts. So goes life. I enjoyed Boy Scouts. I went to Philmont, numerous camping and hiking trips, and I went to the 1977 National Scout Jamboree. Somewhere, up in the attic, I still have all my old uniforms, handbooks, neckerchiefs, patches and other assorted crap.

I never had to put up with Bible thumpers, though. My guess is that Halx, and jonjon42, got mixed up with some asses that used the scouts to further their own agenda. Assholes.

Interesting since my scout troop was mostly jewish.

Never dealt with religion as a Cub Scout, Webelo or Boy Scout, Halx. You probably just had some freakshow for a troop leader.

In any case, I made it to Boy Scouts and then bailed. It was a very strange group of people that I just didn't like so I said, "Sayonara, motherfuckers!".

Why don't I envision the scouts running to RO for their next recruitment poster. :lol:

Never made it past the Webelos here. I guess the camping aspect wasn't my thing - I was more the pinewood derby type of guy. I never ran into the religion aspect, again probably because it was a mixed crowd.

Did I mention I am an eagle scout? Religion was not a thing in our troop. I went to Philmont, Maine for white water canoeing, I stood in front of Senior Bush's box next to the color guard as an honor scout for his inauguration (every president is honorary head of the Boy Scouts). We shot guns every fall on the shooting trip, we went backpacking, burned everything in sight, ate bad food, fished every spring, went to summer camp, rode in an old school bus, did all the fun things you're supposed to do. Our leaders were great. Our scoutmaster was a professor at UMD and his son had left twenty years earlier. He kept at it because he liked the other adults and he liked working with the kids. We also camped once a month, regardless of the weather. During Reagan's second inauguration, we woke to temperatures at nine degrees and dropping. It dropped to -5 that day, and there was already over 6 inches of snow on the ground. It was awesome.

I spent a number of summers at Scout Camp and had some of the best times ever. The weekly meeting thing doesn't really bring back many memories, but some of the activities were pretty great for a kid.

Spent 15 years as an assistant scout master, and 3 years as scout master...
Made some great friends and even greater memories..

I went through being a cub scout, webelos, and then I got up to first class scout in boy scouts. My troop wasn't a bunch of bible thumpers but it did have some assholes in it.

If I remember correctly the rankings in the boy scouts are some thing like this:

Scout
(I think there was another one here)
Second-class scout
First-class scout
Star scout
Life scout
Eagle scout

We only went camping a couple of times, except for a week at summer camp.

Oh your not the only one OK. I was just about to make a smart ass remark about being the only one here and spotted you.
:rolleyes:

/Arch13 decides to read the whole thread now/

Damn I'm glad for the company of Eagle scouts I'm in around here.

Tenderfoot?

With all these Eagle's checking in, we should start and Eagle Scout thread.

I have absolutely no idea what you guys are talking about...mainly because scouts in Australia don't have ranks like that (or maybe they do and I missed it).

I went right through scouts and venturers (where is was guys and girls) and you do cool shit like abseiling / caving / canyoning. I actually spent a little bit of time doing leader work with the local cub pack, when I was in venturers (for a badge).

After Venturers, comes Rovers (people too nerdy to stop going ;))

Eagle scout here. Was in cub scouts for one year, but didn't do webelos. Then one day when I was 12 or 13 (can't remember exactly) my mom made me go to the boy scout troop meeting they had each week at my middle school. I knew some of the guys there so I stuck around. Ended up getting my eagle and staying in the troop until I was 18. Some of my best friends are from scouts. We went to college together after scouts and still talk and hang out when I come back to town.

Hey Spindles, Scouts are cool overseas because they allow girls. We also had subsets called Explorers and Varsity Scouts, but I never got into those. I think explorers would align themselves with a particular activity like a troop-owned sailboat or with the Civil Air Patrol and base their activities around that.

Has anyone felt that being an Eagle Scout has changed anything in their lives, practically speaking? I had always heard that it was something you would put on your resume, but there are several things from my earlier years that I leave off my resume, such as my first job at Dairy Queen...so I was wondering whether you would put Eagle Scout on there or leave it off.
I know that as an employer, if I see Eagle Scout on a resume it gets no real response from me, not positive or negative, but am wondering if it means something to others.
(I'm trying to write this in a way that doesn't imply that being an Eagle Scout means nothing...I don't believe that, just trying to find out if anyone has had any experiences with this later in life.)

I always thought it was We-below boy scouts or something...*shrugs*

Edit: My friend's dad bought him an old Trans Am for completing Eagle Scouts.

My experience in the scouts sucked. Highly restrictive supervision all the way. Quit a short time after Webelos.

Yes Webelos was cool. Camping and I was introduced to 'snipe' hunting...god, it was great sitting out in the dark forest all night waiting for that snipe. Went on many a snipe hunt after that as a guide.

I was in Webelos but got kicked out for eating a Brownie!


But seriously I was a webelos and stuck with it through scouts until I turned 18. Never made Eagle though and I am still kicking myself today for not trying harder... but once I became a senior in high school, there just didn't seem to be enough time anymore. It became too hard to get alot of the merit badges.

I made it to the rank of Life Though. I still talk to my old scout master regularly though. I ran into him 5 or 6 years ago, he retired and now works part time in a fish store by my house. I stop in every 2 to 3 weeks to pick up fish food and shoot the shit.

Scouts was a good part of my life, and I just hope when my son reaches that age that he will be interested in it too, unlike my dad I plan to make the time to join in with him.

DB

Another Eagle Scout here. But not much interested in it lately because of all the negativity with them not allowing certain groups into scouting. There was a national story not too long ago about the Scouts not allowing anyone who did not believe in God to join. I was always taught to believe in a higher power, it was up to the individual to interpret that as they wanted.

But as far as the good things that scouting gave me, confidence, the ability to survive for the most part on the land, appreciation of nature, leadership qualities, and the feeling that if I work hard to achieve something it will happen. Eagle scout was the first treal thing I had to work at and accomplished. Besides all the hiking and camping and boating and such was a lot of fun!!!

I was in Scouts, made it as far as Life Scout was a patrol leader and in the Order of the Arrow. Guess I was lucky, I don't remember a lot of religious indoctrination. Just camping and shooting, hiking, fishing, all the typical Scout stuff. It was a blast. I left when I was fourteen.
BTW, the second rank in Scouts is "Tenderfoot"

Eagle Scout a few years ago.

Had a great scouting experience, mainly cause I was in a really laid back, scout-governed troop (rather than run by a few crazy parents). Met my best friend in scouts and learned a lot of good things, including leadership, goal-setting, and understanding that while I live a high-maintenence lifestyle, I can go camping and not shower for weeks without feeling dirty ;)

-T

its really lame about all that...I dont think religion/sexuality/race should have any kind of role in who is allowed in scouting... and leaders definently should not push any of those type of beliefs on the scouts....


before i went up for the eagle board of review at the district level one of the scoutmasters pulled me aside and told me that he knew i am an athiest but if they ask if i believe in god the correct anser is yes...


during my board of review they had me going over the scout law and what it meant to me... when "and reverent" came around i told em that it meant to me that people should be accepting of others beliefs and all that... then they asked me if it meant anything about an individuals scouts belief... and i told them i thought that was very small and relatively unimportant part of the meaning...

...obviously they liked it enough to make me an eagle...

Glad you stood up for that.

I had fun for a while going from tiger cubs to low-ranked boy scout. Week long summer camp was fun as hell. Unfortunately the scoutmaster of 10, 15 years or so retired right when I was in the thick of it and all the replacements the troop tried to get for the position moved away or gave up after a month, and everyone but the Stars and Lifes who were determined to get their Eagle quit.

The experience people have depends on the troops they were with, though. Some are bible study groups, some will treat you like shit if you miss a single campout, and some don't want to do anything but sit on their ass and have a circlejerk at the weekly meeting. Mine was pretty good until it fell apart, but I'm not forcing my kids to do it in the way that my friends' parents and my own did until we told them to fuck off.