>> They were ALWAYS there, lurking.
I agree. In hindsight, I believe that one of my scoutmasters in the 70s was a homosexual, probably a pedo. Fortunately for me, he only favored the boys who didn’t have fathers or older brothers.
“Fortunately for me, he only favored the boys who didn’t have fathers or older brothers.”
This was an issue for scouts and with coaches and clergy; single mothers would push them towards these people for male role models, unwittingly providing susceptible victims.
My town had not only Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, but we had Sea Scouts as well: https://www.facebook.com/KearnySeaScouts
The success of this group, and its eventually collapse, was probably attributable to the fact that it required a lot of parental input/fundraising (the boats cost a lot of money to operate - diesel fuel); it had no use for parents looking to dump off their children as an alternative to daycare. Instead of weekend camping trips, the highlight of the Sea Scouts was a month-long summer trip up to Lake Champlain; the large boat pictured on the webpage (a Korean War ASR - Air Sea Rescue boat, with bunks for 8-10) was fast enough for waterskiing (and they had a Vietnam-era PBR as well).