The 1977 Boy Scout National Jamboree Morain State Park, PA. Page 3
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| I comment on several Jamborees about what a dedicated group of individuals the Jamboree Staff men were (are), here’s a photo from 1977 with well known Chicago collector John Kennedy and Bob Cylkowski’s dad in 1977. Can you identify others? Thanks Bob Cylkowski |
 With the Skill o Rama discontinued, the Midway expanded. The Merit Badge Midway would become a Jamboree tradition. Sixty plus merit badges were available at the Jamboree. If a Scout came to the Jamboree with some of the paperworkcompleted he could return home with a lot of merit badges. The list of sponsors reflects the BSA outreach to other organizations.  |
| The Skill o Rama from so many previous Jamborees had been discontinued and was partially replaced by an Arts and Science Fair. Such a fair seemed very timely because the USA was falling behind in the sciences. The Fair wasn’t as exciting as all the exhibits at the Skill o Rama, but Scouts enjoyed it. Ribbons were given for achievement. Thanks Jim Ellis |
 I haven’t show much paper material from later Jamborees, but there is a huge amount of interesting paperwork from every Jamboree. I know of a collector that scavenges the garbage cans after the Jamboree for all kinds of papers. |
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 The Wide Game was repeated. Scouts received 18 cards with their subcamp letter on it. Scouts would scour the Jamboree trying to find Scouts from other subcamps with different letters to spell out Third Century USA. When all 15 letters were combined and names exchanged, the strip was awarded. |
| (below) With the widespread adoption of the CSP and its adaptation into the JSP, some councils continued to issue an ordinary Jamboree council patch. Trading at future Jamborees would cause the decline of the Jamboree council patch with most Scouts looking to trade for a JSP. It’s interesting that only 32 JSP’s have been documented in use in 1977. That number would triple for the 1981 Jamboree. |
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 About the Max Silber belt Buckle. The Silber belt buckle became a Jamboree tradition. They were highly sought after, although today they seem to be available on eBay almost any time. Bruce Shelley reports that Silber produced 1,000 buckles for 1964. Each member of the four Jamboree troops was given two (320). That left 680 for Silber to present to friends, staff members and scouting dignitaries. If 1000 produced was typical, it’s easy to see how they are frequently available today. |
| Program areas were revamped and updated for 1977. The Skill o Rama was gone. The Merit Badge Midway was in operation. There was an Arts and Science Fair, a (handicap) Awareness Trail, a Brownsea reenactment, a Environmental Conservation Area and of course Arena Shows. There was competition in first aid, marksmanship, orienteering, and fire starting. The medals, below could be awarded for various events. At future Jamboree more program areas would have souvenirs and handouts. |
     The Trading Posts were stocked with almost everything a Scout could want. However it seems that there were less “trinkets” and souvenir items available for 1977. The BSA had a problem with all of the unsold merchandise from the 1973 Jamboree. Perhaps it was decided that Scouts didn’t really want a high percentage of the trinkets the Trading Posts had been trying to sell. |
| I mention elsewhere how the Jamboree was becoming expensive and I question how much spendable cash the average Scout might have had. |
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| Paul Myers Goshen,
Indiana gimogash@comcast.net |