Merit Badges and Adolescent Angst

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Over at the Oxford American, Rosecrans Baldwin treats us to a piece on America’s Boy Scouts. Also, adolescent angst:

Any cool kids in my town whose parents enrolled them in Cub Scouts were gone by the time we were old enough to level-up. It might’ve been because of the program between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts: Webelos, standing for “We’ll Be Loyal Scouts,” unfortunately pronounced we blow. Or maybe those of us who remained simply didn’t know any better, or maybe we actually liked scouting.


Bryan Washington has written for Puerto Del Sol, Ninth Letter, and Midnight Breakfast, among others; he's also the recipient of a Houstonia Fellowship. He lives around New Orleans. More from this author →