Tico's Patch Collectors Survey
A Patcheller by the name of Tico Perez (TicoP@AOL.COM) is conducting an Internet survey of the role patch collectors play in Scouting.

I don't know why other patch collectors/traders do what they do but I suspect the obvious common thread (sorry!) is their love of Scouting. Those bits of embroidered cloth evoke many different things in many different people--a memory of a favorite Scouting event like a camporee or National Jamboree, or a merit badge earned that led to a career, or an OA flap that marked a young man's induction into Scouting's "honor camping fraternity." To we patch collectors, a patch is much more than just a means to cover a hole in some fashion diva's jeans. The holes we try to fill are usually in our collections.

Do you have to be a Scouter/Scout to collect/trade Scout patches? No, but it sure does help! A retorical question I know, but do you have to work for the Post Office if you collect stamps? No, but it sure does help to be in a position behind the counter when that new issue of commemoratives comes out.

Patch collectors run the gamut from the "I got some stuff in a shoebox" dabble to full-blown "I gotta have it..all!" addiction. A few patch collectors I have known (and a couple I still counsel, er, correspond with now, you know who you are) could benefit from a good 12-step intervention in a local support group. "Hi, my name is Don, and I'm a patchaholic."

A friend of mine spent a lifetime carving, collecting and trading/giving away neckerchief slides. He disdained patches because they were two dimensional and he couldn't sew worth a darn (or couldn't darn a sock) or make them himself. But he could make a Scout jackknife whittle an intricate basswood slide with a skill that would put a Nip/Tuck plastic surgeon to shame. He carried a personally autographed picture of Whittln' Jim around in his wallet.

Another memorabilia collector I know collects old Scouting literature, fieldbooks, handbooks, merit badge books, cards, Boy Scout juveniles from the 20's and 30's, old charters and certificates, anything Scouting as long as its in print. His office (he's a lawyer) looks like a branch of the Public Library crossed with a National Supply Trading Post, but he dosen't have a patch to his name.

My point here is that Scouting memorabilia collectors/traders are an interesting and varied lot. As a lifelong Scouter, semiretired teacher and full-time patch designer, I'm proud to be one of 'em! Tico, feel free to brag away. By the way--I'm ALWAYS looking for early Onteroraus 402, pre-1984, OA,any Project SOAR literature, any rare or unusual 1960 National Jamboree/50th Anniversary items. Supposedly, there are somewhere out there Scout casket handles in the shape of fluer de lis.
I haven't seem them yet in the BSA Supply catalog....