1999 Boy Scout Museum and the Foreign Visitors

1999 – January 6 - Started Working at the Boy Scout Museum in Murray, KY

I started working at the National Scouting Museum as a tour guide for the Norman Rockwell Exhibit. There are twenty seven Rockwell Paintings in this Gallery. Two of these are from 1918 the first one titled Scouting Makes Real Men Out of Real Boys is of just flags. I didn’t know until I started doing this exhibit that Boy Scouts reported ship movements off the east coast to the US Navy during WWI. These flags, called semaphore flags, are what they used to do the reporting.

The second portrait done in 1918 is titled A Good Scout; this one was the first Norman Rockwell Boy Scout painting ever used in a calendar.

From about 1944 Rockwell used the same young man as his model of a Boy Scout. This young man, Buddy Edgerton, was never in the Scouts but lived next door to Rockwell and it was said that he had a very likeable personality and was very reliable; for that reason Rockwell like to use him as his model.

I could go on and on here about those paintings, because I do love Norman Rockwell; but I don’t want to bore my audience.

I will tell you about my visitors from overseas. There were five of these gentlemen and they didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak their language. My director at the Museum asked if I thought I would have any problems and I told him no, I didn’t think so.

The night before they were due for the tour I baked Zucchini Bread. I went in the next morning, fixed the coffee pot and waited for the gentlemen from overseas. I showed them all of the Norman Rockwell portraits and of course, even though I gave my normal speeches for each portrait, I’m sure they didn’t understand a word that I was saying.

When the tour was over I thought I would see if they wanted Zucchini Bread and coffee; so I made a motion like I was smoking a cigarette. Sure enough they all got out their packs of cigarettes and lighters. Then I made motions like I was eating and drinking. At that they started buzzing like bees and nodding their heads yes.

So I escorted the five gentlemen down to the break room, poured them coffee and cut them pieces of my Zucchini Bread. As we were sitting there enjoying our bread, coffee and cigarettes the director came through and nodded at me. Later on he told me he knew if anyone knew how to talk without speaking the language it would be me.

I like to think that those gentlemen still talk about that American who gave them Zucchini Bread and coffee when they visited the Boy Scout Museum in Murray, Kentucky.