I’ve written and talked about how I caught the “patch bug” the week that I got into the OA back in 1986. If you listened to my Scouting Hot Finds Radio show back on November 30th I had on my old friend Paul Gowder. In that show we talked about the patches there were being traded around Elk campsite that week. I will never forget one of those flaps. Somebody put into the mix a twill Osage 42 flap. Now the only thing we knew about twill flaps was from drooling after the blue and black twills of Santee 116 so this Osage flap was treated with reverence. Of course I later found out that not all twills are made alike and this Lodge 42 flap wasn’t pure gold. However, I’ll never forget the first OA flap from another lodge that really left an impression on me as a 14 year old just getting my feet wet in patch collecting. I spotted one on eBay today and thought I’d share this and ask does anybody else have a story of that first patch that really connected with them they would be willing to share?
42 Osage Lodge Black Brd Cut edge Black Twill Bkg
I love the bear design that you guys have. In fact I’ve got one of the flap shaped jacket patches in my permanent collection. Thanks for sharing!
I really like the flap shaped jacket one we did for our 10th anniversary it was a great concept. We had a canoe shaped one in the works for our 15th anniversary, but it didn’t happen.
Do you guys have restricted regular issue flaps or can you buy them on open sale? I know you issue flaps for most occasions that are probably tough to get but I was wondering if the regular issue was?
Our “regular” issue has changed at each Ordeal. We change the fleur de lis on the flaps that are issued to new ordeal members and then whatever is left after our Fall Ordeal we sell in the trading post. The only flaps that I can think of that are harder to get are staff flaps the weekend of the event, but usually there are some leftover and they get sold to general membership afterwards. I think we finally sold the last of our Scoutbase ’08 staff flaps this year. I know one of our more truly restricted flaps is our Servicecorps flaps since we can’t buy any and are only issued two per arrowman, but they make their way onto eBay eventually haha.
The first flap I really remember is the flap I received at my Ordeal in August of 1990. As we all know it was the 75th Anniversary of the OA that year and my lodge, Muscogee 221, had a new flap design with a small turtle in commemoration. I didn’t realize any of the hoopla about it but after talking to a friend at school he explained it to me and even gave me another flap for my uniform, it looked the same but without the turtle. I wasn’t paying much attention when I gave my shirt and uniform to Mom to sew my flap on and the “turtle flap” ended up on my pocket. Fast forward two years to a crowded parade field at Camp Barstow during the first week of camp and I’m standing in the crowd when this weird little guy (many of you know him) comes up to me, points at my pocket, and tells me he’ll give me $50 for my flap.
The flap is still one of the more difficult ones from the past 20 years or so from our lodge and holds its value well. That weird little guy has probably had dozens of them through the years, mine was never one of them.
The steroid fox is one of the best looking flaps of the modern era in my book!
The question wasn’t asked the right way because I first got into patch trading due to a CSP, not an OA flap. When I was the troop SPL, I attended a week long training course called Brownsea II which is analogous to today’s NYLT. My tent partner had relatives in Fargo, ND and he showed me a Northern Lights CSP. Until that moment, it had never occurred to me that there were different councils and patches other than my own. That summer, our troop went to Camp Emerald Bay on Catalina Island and I took 10 San Mateo County T-1 CSP’s and traded them for every council in camp that week: Los Angeles Area, Great Western, Ventura County, Verdugo Hills, Old Baldy, Southern Sierra, Orange County, San Diego County, California Inland Empire, and Long Beach. A staffer in the dining hall sold me a Malibu 566 S-1 which at that time was the most awesome OA flap in the country (in our opinion at least). It wasn’t the first flap in my collection however.
My own Ordeal flap was the Pomponio 528 S-7. With a restriction of two per year, I didn’t trade them very often. We liked them because they were an odd shape with the hanging tail.
I got the trading bug on my first trip to Philmont in 1974, at age 13. What captured my imagination was learning that my own lodge, 190 Wisawanik was a coveted flap. Ours, Arbuckle Area Council, was a particularly small Council, ergo, our flaps were in short supply nationally. I always thought it a beautiful flap, fully embroidered, and 2/Life at that time. https://www.collectors.com/historical-item/oa-wisawanik-lodge-190-s3/-8754810452487869559
Hahaha I remember the first flaps I got the bug from. The day after my ordeal I was sitting in my camp site at Robert S. Lyle prod to know I was one of the last Arrow to ever come out of the camp , as it was closing soon after, and my Dad came up to me and handed me a baggy. Inside were two old Mascouten lodge 8 flaps. I still have those two in a special bag in my collection.
The first flap that I can remember giving me that “oooo ahh” feeling when I saw it was the S-21 from my home lodge, Ahoalan-Nachpikin. I remember that I saw it at a LOAC and had to decide between it or a beanie to stay warm. I got the beanie, but spent a year or two tracking one down and finally traded for it. I was very happy and have kept in my safe box with my other prized flaps. I think the thing that drew me to it was that it looked different than all the other flaps I had seen because it was a ghosted flap and all other had looked the same to me at that point because I wasn’t looking at details at that point in my patch collecting.