Saturday, July 15, 2017

Sepia Saturday 376 - Building

As with all our choices for Sepia Saturday (SS) we have a lot to choose from this week.
Crowds, festivities, events, flags. . . and the list goes on.

And as with most Sepia Saturday's I can not find the picture I had planned on using and must go with a back up plan.
(I do have one question of Alan before I go further; Is the builder of this pavilion the same Norwood builder that appeared in the Sherlock Holmes story?)

From the picture above I decided to go with the theme; Building something and Flags flying.


While our Boy Scout construction could never be compared to the fine building in this weeks prompt, for eleven to fifteen year old scouts it was quite the achievement.
Probably built in the late 60's, early 70's we were understandably proud that it stood up well in what appears to be a pretty good  wind.

Flags proudly flying.
The USA flag and Troop 763's flag.

Back when I was in Scouts, pre-cell phone days, we still learned how to signal from signal towers with semaphore flags.
Knots and how to use them was very important to our Scouting education.
And at least once a year we would  build a signal tower . . . .






. . .  or a Monkey Bridge.

These two seem to have been built at the same event. This would have been in the field in front of the school that sponsored our troop. US Hwy 70 can be seen in the back ground. It must have been an event to get others interested in Scouts because we built them so close to the main roads. We may have even been inventing other kids to stop by and climb on the bridge. (You have to pay good money to do these rope course's now.)

Those days of building big things out of logs and rope are few and far between now I would imagine in Scouts. Signal towers were things left over from Baden-Powell's days.
But thankfully, at least so far, my daughter still loves to hear the stories.

8 comments:

  1. I hope scout troops still do things like this? Such basic skills and who knows when, why, or where they might be needed? All our amazing electronics are great - when they work. But with all the hacking and whatnot going on today, it's not all that improbable that one day we might find ourselves without ANY of their services - including simple electricity. What then? What if no one can remember how to tie a proper knot or construct a simple tower or signal someone else with flags? Or smoke signals? Sounds kind of silly right now, but . . . who knows???

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  2. The first structure looks very precarious for the two men aloft.

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    1. Although somewhat of square, it survived the day, as did the boys.

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  3. Great to see what can be crafted with boy-power. I live a block off of US 70, so wonder where on it's wanderings these boys were building their towers. I'm in Black Mountain, NC! We've got lots of log ccabins around here in the mountains. (I admit to looking at some of your cabin photos...very well documented!)

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    1. Have done some wonderful kayaking in NC. And you are right, lots of great cabins there also.
      We are on 70 in St Charles Mo.

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  4. I like to think that kids are still doing these sort of things. And I like to think that learning to tie knots is still important. I have always been amazed at how easily my dad ties different kinds of knots depending on the need. He wasn't a boy scout, just a kid who grew up on a ranch then joined the Navy. He can tie some great knots.

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    1. I am sure some are. All up to the leaders, isn't it?
      I still love working with ropes and knots.
      Thanks for stopping by.

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