Things certainly seem to have changed from when I was in the Cub Scouts (late 1960s - early 1970s). Don't recall needing chits and parental permission for pocketknives. We might have, but I don't remember it.

I had a pocketknife I took to every meeting. I still have that very pocketknife. I think the general advice was, bring whatever you have, and the more the better -- for sharing and all.

Didn't carry a lighter, though. My parents would have gone postal over that. Found one in the gutter some years later and carried it. Learned all about setting fires and putting them out, right in my own backyard -- away from my parents' eyes. Told them later on. Their eyes did bug out a bit!

Things seem a bit too politically correct these days in scouting. Or is it me?

-- Craig