The Eagle Scout Honor Dinner Sponsor Some go above and beyond some you never hear from again

 When I got my Eagle Scout Award that years class of Eagle Scouts  was given a Awards Banquet  at The long Gone Three Rivers Stadium Club

Each of us had a sponsor for the dinner which cost around $50.00 for the sponsor which was matched up to us with our career path.

Of course I later found out Electrician was not deemed as good enough path for an eagle scout  they expected you to be more corporate business or professional career related

Little did they know I would go and open my own business which was y plan all along but everyone just assumed I would be another hunky working in the mill.

My Sponsor was a very nice  gentleman from Alcoa unfortunately i can not remember his name it has been to many years. 

I met him at his office we talked about career choices then we went by his car over to 

the Stadium which was a big deal .

Unfortunately I got to see out big corporations business leaders at work and  disagreed with several of them during dinner conversation something an eagle was not suppose to do sorry i don't kiss anyone's ass when it comes to degrading our country and its technology at the time .

The dinner program went well even Earl Schriber was there with a real live Eagle  .

I thanked my sponsor sent him a nice thank you card and that was it never to hear from him again 

 

 The big picture of what i heard at that dinner would become clear several years later when i was at an eagle scout luncheon 

and David Roderick laid out the big new world plan which saw the destruction of our country as jobs went overseas .I just wonder all who sat at that dinner table that night realized what they had set in motion.

 I would meet my sponsor in 78 at a Explorer event at now closed Kings Mountain Resort in Fayette County said hello told him how i was getting ready to start a full time  business he congratulated me and last time i ever saw him.

 My Scout Master would ask me often did you hear from your sponsor  No would always be the answer while his sons sponsor was still in contact and helping him. 

When i talked with other eagle scouts it seems many like me never heard again from their sponsors it was a one time deal. That is OK it was very nice of them all to do such a nice thing for us.  

I sponsored an eagle one time who wanted to be an electrician  and every time i called he was never home but talked to his father who told me of his progress. I told him to call me if he ever needed help but he never did . Don't know if he ever got a job and stayed in the electrical field last time i tried to contact him number was no longer in service. 

and so it goes. 

Had i known then what i know now things would have been different.

 

 

How to screw up a County Bicentenial Celebration Invite Politicians

The year of our country's Bicentennial in 1976 saw celebrations all across the country.
I got to speak at a one for Allegheny County after our politically connected  Scout Master   was able to get us involved in the county Bicentennial Celebration in the Courthouse Court yard.

What an honor it was to be selected to put on a Flag History display and folding at the ceremony.

How ever it became a total farce and disappointment

Instead of the 10 minute program we had trained and planned for to put on we got cut down to 3 minutes.  

Why well one of the county commissioners Jim Flaugherty introduces his new plan for the coutrt yard which was nothing more than a parking lot 

It was going to be Katie's park and he and the other Commissioners  droned on and on and slapping each other on the back  about this park to point it became boring and people started leaving the celebration.  

We finally got to do our cut down program 

We  showed how to properly Fold the flag I pointed out the flags hanging and gave their names and no history to them and that was that all the rest of the programs scheduled cut back or did not do them .

What a total disappointment our commissioners where that day.

However after the program we got to ride the Restored Wooden Orange Painted Trolley around town which was running for the bicentenial 

This action by the commisioners  along with many other stunts and inaction's and missteps by the commisioners over the next couple decades saw to their eleimanation and a County Commision with a county Manager put in their place. 

what a dam shame

How a Power Company Honoring one of its Retired Employees ended up dissing his BSA affiliation and ultimately embarrassing him.

 Arthur Evans  who everyone called Art  was one of those rare gems of a gentleman and caring person you run across. a life long bachelor

I meet him in early 70s  while on the path to Eagle Scout as he was a Merit Badge Councilor for Citizenship in the Community Badge .

 

 

 

 

My Mom dropped me off at his home in Whitehall and we connected right off . I loved learning about old things and Art had many old items around his home  which has since been  sold off and his old home fully remolded

We went over the whole badge requirements and I learned he 

was also our troops 383#  Scout Master at one time. I also believe he received the Silver Beaver scouting award

He was also Big Time into Little league baseball and had many Awards and Thank Yous on his wall which we talked about.

Now in today's society you might think it weird or unsafe dropping your son off at a strangers home but Art was a well loved and trusted scout leader despite fact he had no children of his own .In-fact he had no living relatives

There where many such men who served in scouting back then.

I would see Art from time to time at scouting events and always stop and say hello and talk to him for a few minutes  and this is why he asked me to be in an article that was to be done on his behalf 

with the Power Company he had retired from Magazine . Art had run the Emergency Board at the Operations center for many years helping to keep the lights on in Allegheny county and City of Pittsburgh .

I had just received my Eagle scout Award  and he had received the prestigious  Dapper Dan Award 

https://old.post-gazette.com/dapperdan/history.asp

For all his hard work promoting sports. He wanted me in the article to represent his other  love of Scouting as well. 

It was a large silver tray he was awarded and he was in seventh heaven. People thought that much about him.

I meet him at his home in my Scout Uniform and he also had a Young man who was in his Baseball Uniform  . We where both interviewed and photographed with Art  by the photographer reporter for the power company magazine .

However Arts Joy would soon sour. 

Several months after the photo session he walked up to me he seemed very saddened and embarrassed

He apologized to me that  there was no mention of me or my picture in the magazine article in fact there was less than a sentence on his scouting efforts it was focused solely on  the baseball player and Arts sports activity's.

I consoled him and told him it was OK but I know it stayed with Art till his passing how his scouting efforts where overlooked in the article.

Why was all his scouting and me overlooked  ? One can speculate  but it has been suggested to me it was because my last name sounding Jewish.

I would hate to think it was any such possibility  and it was more they only had so much publishing room for the article.  

 Having been in many publications over the years I think it very unlikely it had to do with my last name  . But Pittsburgh has always had a very racist makeup and i have seen and heard it .

If that was the reason it would have broken Arts Heart.

I really miss him to this day and wish things would have went better for him but it is what it is as they say. 

I am sure there is no one left in today's scouting program even remembers him  as well as all the great men who made scouting in 50s thru 80s.