Go You Chicken Fat Go

I’m beginning to think that every generation believes that they grew up in the best of times.

When Apple recently aired its new iPhone commercial featuring Meredith Wilson’s Chicken Fat Song it immediately took me back to the 60’s when every morning at Boy Scout Summer Camp after revile the camp’s loud speakers blasted out this 60’s goody! My kids had always thought I made the song up when I would belt out a few lines.

After John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960 he created the President’s Council on Youth Fitness. He believed that America’s youth was behind the world when it came to fitness (not much has changed, right). He commissioned Wilson to create the song and two hundred thousand copies were distributed at no cost and another 40,000 were sold. The council engaged in a sweeping drive to achieve widespread participation in the program for the 1961–1962 school year.

I must admit I neither heard the song outside of Scout Camp nor was exposed to it at school as thousands obviously were yet the song creeps into my head from time to time thanks to my old Scout Camp and more recently, Apple.

Next week I am joining local Boy Scouts who are traveling and spending a week at Muskingum Valley Scout Reservation near Coshocton, Ohio, my old Scout Camp. I haven’t spent a summer’s week there in over 30 years but am told to expect the Chicken Fat Song to be played after reveille over the camp’s loud speakers as they have done for over 30 years.

The song will take me back to a time when, contrary to what JFK thought at the time, youth found themselves in pretty good physical shape.

So next week, around 7 am, I’ll be waking to ..“Give that chicken fat back to the chicken, and don't be chicken again. No, don't be chicken again.”

I’m pretty certain, I grew up in the best of times!