Wearing that Impressive Uniform - Time Out #242

My father, Col. C.H. Breedlove, wanted to make sure our family blended in with Our Town's folks, early on after our arrival here, July, 1953.

To help accomplish his goal, he encouraged me to join the Cub Scouts during my early elementary years at nearby Westwood School. There were a few other after-school activities I participated in during my grades 1-5 there, such as the city parks and recreation department administered little league basketball and baseball. Those things were seasonal, however, whereas Cub Scouts was a year-round endeavor. My den number was 3, and pack number 4, both of which were brightly displayed on a red patch on one shoulder of the official dark blue, long sleeve shirt. Our colorful uniforms, which we proudly wore to school the days we had an afternoon scheduled den meeting, also consisted of a gold scarf around our neck, a blue cap with the Cub Scout logo in the middle, and a dark blue belt, accented with our always-worn blue jeans. The belt had a shiny gold buckle, also specific for the national organization. We were quite spiffy looking fellows, and I am sure we turned a few classmate heads when we proudly wore our uniforms to Westwood..

Life-long friends were made through those early years; names like Roger, Jim, Richard, Hayes, Garland, Brian, Kenny, Andy, Freddie, David, Randy and Neil are still are pictured in my mind's eye, wearing their scout uniforms.

Jim Andrews' nice mom was our first den mother, and we would assemble in her living room/dining area at 129 Redwood Drive, Our Town. The orderly progression of Cub Scouts was the Bobcat pin when you first began, followed by the Wolf, Lion, Bear, and finally the Webelos badges, I believe?. The Wolf printed book was the first one we followed during our den meetings. The book explained to our den mother and parents just what activities we would do in order to be able to advance to the next level (badge). Through these three books (Lion and Bear, too), there were also ways for us to earn gold and silver arrowheads, which our parents would sign off for us when we completed the required scouting tasks. The various badges and arrowheads would be attached (sewn) to our shirts on the left side of the chest, just like awards are attached today on our military soldiers' uniforms.

After a couple of dedicated years, Mrs. Andrews went to work for her husband, Bill's, independent insurance agency, so Freddie Kenny's mom became our den mother. The Kenny family lived at the northeast corner of West 9th Avenue and South McDonald Street. Mrs. Kenny provided the same high level of care and teaching to our scouting group as Mrs. Andrews had given us. I vividly remember Freddie's father owned a full-size pinball machine he kept in one of his home bedrooms. After we were through with our official den meeting requirements, our gang would gather around the electronic game, and play the pinball machine until our parents picked us up to take us home. When the outside weather was nice, we would play pick-up football in Freddie's yard. We certainly had great fun times there!

Other events I remember in connection with scouting were our regular Pack meetings at Westwood School. During those times, various programs would be presented to all the dens assembled together to make Pack 4. Also, once per year, the entire Our Town scouting community would gather at the old Animal Husbandry Arena on the north side of the OSU campus, and participate in the annual Boy Scout Jamboree. The entire city would come to this free yearly event to interact with the scouting community. Many educational booths were on-site, and various interactive programs were presented to the general public. My den mates and I always enjoyed participating in this event, and putting on our uniforms for all to see us.

Once we attained the Webelos level of Cub Scouts, we were given the choice of joining the Boy Scouts as we got older. A few of my group took that opportunity, but I did not. However, the years I spent in Our Town's Cub Scout organization provide me many great memories of long ago!