Scarves, by Ricky

        I suppose that boys and men who cross-dress, or are drag-queens, or who are comfortable enough to wear women’s clothes in a play or at a costume party, and most girls and women have at one time or another used or wore a scarf as part of their attire.  I am not in one of those categories and have never worn a scarf.

        There are several synonyms for “scarf” listed in the Windows Thesaurus.  Cravat, tie, and handkerchief are three of those.  Of course, I have personally worn a tie many times so I guess one could say that a tie or cravat is a “manly-scarf”.  I have also had a handkerchief on my person, infrequently, when I was much younger and mother would insist.

        According to Wikipedia at some point in history, handkerchiefs began life being a kerchief for either a head covering or the wiping your face or blowing your nose purposes.  To differentiate between the two purposes, the nose type was called a handkerchief and the head covering became the headkerchief.  The latter term I personally have never heard used, so I suspect it is now in the realm of being an archaic word usage.

        If handkerchief is a synonym for scarf, then scarf is a synonym for neckerchief.  I have worn a neckerchief from the age of 13 to 20 as a member of the Boy Scouts.  In my scouting career, my troop had three different neckerchiefs over time: 

Yellow & Black

Blue & Yellow

Purple

  

BSA Camp Winton Staff

      I also wore a plaid neckerchief while on the staff of a BSA summer camp.  

Order of the Arrow

       As a member of the BSA’s honor society, Order of the Arrow, I was given a solid red neckerchief with a large patch on the back.

      I can’t speak for all scouts, but as an adolescent boy, these neckerchiefs meant a lot to me and they still do.  I have many happy memories of that time of my life with activities our troop engaged in as part of the scouting program.

        At that young age, the most common use of a neckerchief is to identify members of one’s own troop from a distance while camping out with many other troops during a scouting competition.  The Scout Handbook also contains the more practical though not commonly needed uses for the neckerchief.  Uses such as a sling for a damaged arm, bandage, tourniquet, sprained or broken ankle support, and signaling.  Wikipedia also lists many uses one hopes scouts will never need, such as: a gag, a blackjack, or a Molotov cocktail wick.

        The neckerchiefs I displayed in this story are a visual stimulus to very happy memories which I have not thought of for decades.  They were located in a large box where I placed things about my life that I want my offspring to know about me.  I hoped I could find these neckerchiefs to show all of you but was not sure they still existed.  Fortunately, I did find them and spent much time remembering before I began to write this story, memories I have yet to write.

I stored the neckerchiefs away about 41-years ago along with the memories.  Now both are back.

© 23 March 2015 

About the Author 

  

I was born in June of 1948 in Los Angeles, living first in Lawndale and then in Redondo Beach.  Just prior to turning 8 years old in 1956, I was sent to live with my grandparents on their farm in Isanti County, Minnesota for two years during which time my parents divorced.

When united with my mother and stepfather two years later in 1958, I lived first at Emerald Bay and then at South Lake Tahoe, California, graduating from South Tahoe High School in 1966.  After three tours of duty with the Air Force, I moved to Denver, Colorado where I lived with my wife and four children until her passing away from complications of breast cancer four days after the 9-11-2001 terrorist attack.

I came out as a gay man in the summer of 2010.   I find writing these memories to be therapeutic.

My story blog is, TheTahoeBoy.Blogspot.com.