The Mystery of the Scout Uniform

There are a few facts those who know me (or profess to) should know when it comes to my love of history.  

1.  I've been fascinated by and studied history since I was 8 years old.  (And 8 years old is very far in the rear view mirror for me now)

2.  I've been studying genealogy for over three decades.

3.  I've always fancied myself an amateur detective. (Visions of myself as a modern day Sherlock Holmes or real life Batman filled my childhood)

There is a PBS television series called Histories Mysteries (or something like that), where people present items that have a mysterious past and the show's experts find out more about them.  I love that show.  Fascinating stories about ordinary (and sometimes extraordinary) people and the common place items that share a bond with a place, a time, and/or a person.  

I found one such item myself.  It will never be worth millions of dollars.  People at Christie's Auctions will not wet themselves over the chance at owning it.  But for me, and hopefully for the young Boy Scouts I serve as Scoutmaster, it will be a cherished item with a unique history, and its own story.

The item is a vintage 1960s Boy Scout uniform shirt.  It is green and surprisingly small when you look at it.  The young man who once wore it couldn't have been much older than my son, whom the uniform fits perfectly, as if destined to arrive at this exact point in his life.  The uniform is from a Boy Scout in the same unit as my son, Troop 417 chartered to the First United Methodist Church in Park Hills, Missouri (formerly known as Flat River, Missouri).  The scout had earned his Eagle Scout rank, this known to us by the rank patch on the left breast pocket.  The scout was a member of the Order of the Arrow, a National Honor Society of Scouting whereby a Boy Scout can only earn membership by being voted in by his peers, his fellow Scouts.  The scout also attended the 1964 National Jamboree, held that year in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania (about 25 miles from Philadelphia, our Nationa's first capital and site of 2 previous Jamborees).  That final fact was also given to us by a patch, the National Jamboree patch above the right pocket, over the green Order of the Arrow pocket flap patch.

I had my mystery and I set out to find an answer.....

TO BE CONTINUED