What are the odds??

[fishmeok]

Back when I was 13 or so I went through the typical teenage punk phase. One day as I was rummaging in the basement I found my dad's Boy Scout windbreaker from the 60's. It still had some of the original patches on it, so I of course immediately removed them and turned the thing into a punk masterpiece. More or less. As got a little older I realized what I had done, and have regretted ripping that thing up for years- though I was at least smart enough to keep the patches.

A couple months ago I was digging through one of our local thrift stores when a familiar red jacket caught my eye. I pulled it out and was amazed to find that not only was it identical to the one I destroyed, but that it had the same 50th anniversary jamboree patch sewn on the back! Makes me feel a little better for some reason...

This is really a very interesting jacket, it's a 46, in almost perfect shape, and the patches date from the early 50's to the early 60's. Are there any BSA members on the list? Are jackets like this still being used?

More pics here:
http://superiorjackets.com/?p=532

Cheers
Mark

 

[dujardin]

i'm still thinking : when we are young, we are ignorant - unrespectuous and stupid.

when young, i or destroy or loss some precious collector for today, i wear M43 field jacket for playing outside, i play with authentic german helmet - gaz mask - bag - aso aso.... tens of collecors that i regret they finish in the garbage.

another jacket that is now until my biggest care, the jacket my father use for bike ridding in the 50's.
she now preserved but she also suffer under my hands when i use her when i was +- 15 y.
the lining in the sleeves is missing, one puller on a zip pocket is also missing, one buckle too.
and i remember that (yes i know it's completely stupid) i paint a guitar and a lettering ''rock'n'roll'' on the back.
period of this event, a certain movie ''GREASE''.
hopelessly, i may remove all the colour without damaging the leather.

when i was young, i was all of that, ignorant-unrespectuous and STUPIDDDDDDDD

byeeeeeeeeeee marcel

 

[rick.canavar]

Wow, I'd love to find one of those. I think they are great looking jackets. I'm an eagle scout and if my memory serves me right those jackets disappeared some time around the mid-eighties. I think they were still for sale at that point, but I never saw one actually worn by anyone. On the other hand I grew up in small town TN and all the scout stuff was for sale at the local Parks-Belk clothing store. Who knows how long stuff sat in the inventory there after it had disappeared from other places?

 

[tgd31968]

Don't beat yourself up too much.

Keep in mind that most of this stuff has only become "valuable" in more recent years. Excess time and money have given us the luxury of romaticizing things from our childhood.

I remember going to army surplus stores with my Dad in the mid 1970's and there would be tables and boxs FULL of wwII/Korean war gear. The smell of damp canvas still reminds me of it. It was JUNK then, mostly a cost effective alternative to "modern" civilan expensive camping equipment. My brothers used WWII pistol belts and canteens for boy scout camping in the 60's and I played with them and used them in teh 70's. It was just surplus junk. Somewhere along the line, miliary surplus equimpent went from the plentiful cheap choice to premium collector status. Kinda like how Velveeta and Spam went from being low cost food to expensive treats.

I put a scope on a beautiful M96 swedish mauser when I was a teen. It is good work not a hack job. It destroyed the collector value, but there was no collector value when I bought it. It was a $75 cheap surplus rifle from Woolworths when a new rifle would have been $200, and I needed a deer rifle. Now that rifle in the original condition would be worth $400 or so. but I also have a great shooting deer rifle, I got a lot of use out of it, and I would have had to wait about 30 years for the appreciation. Thats just how it is.

Nostalgia has created a market that wasn't really there before when the real vets were still a big chunk of the population. TO them it was just a belt. It is their kids and maybe grand kids that have made them sacred objects.

 

[Stony]

Some early scout items are worth some money, especially eagle scout items. When I say early, I mean WWII and before.