Each month on a Sunday night we had court of honor. Now days the Church has said that a court of honor should not be held on a Sunday, but back then there was no restriction. Court of honor was a somber occasion where we would meet in the gym of the stake center. Our stake was made up of six wards which each had a scout troop. It started out with a flag ceremony and an opening prayer. Then each troop took its turn to have the boys stand in a straight line. The senior patrol leader would present the troop and then the scout master would read off the merit badges earned. As a boy's name would be called out. He took one step forward, smiled, and saluted. When a boy earned a rank advancement his parents came up and he had the award pinned on him by his mother. I always chose to have patches that needed to be sewn on, so I pinned the mothers pin on my Mom's dress. After every troop had a chance to come up, they presented the Eagle Scout awards. This was done as the lights of the cultural hall being turned off. And just the stage was illuminated. The young man's parents and himself were sitting on the stage. There were two real, stuffed, eagles at the back of the stage. Dick Alsop, who had a very distinguished voice and was a professional announcer (and who lived in our stake) had made a tape reading of a biography about the boy. It was dubbed over patriotic music. After that, the young man was presented with the Eagle Scout award by his scout leader. This made each of us younger scouts desire even more to earn the rank of Eagle as well. After that presentation the judges who had been tallying up all the points, presented the winning troop for that month. Each troop was judged on many items, such as a monthly camp, how many merit badges, rank advancements, and people at the court of honor. It was exciting to "win the court" as it was called.
No comments:
Post a Comment