A scouting bash

Newport Beach City Councilman Don Webb best described why there was a

hubbub last week over the 50th anniversary of the Boy Scouts

Jamboree, held in 1953 in Newport Beach.

“Once you’re a Scout, you’re always a Scout,” he said. “It becomes

a part of your life.”

That event, held on the site that has since been developed as

Fashion Island, drew more than 50,000 Scouts and notables such as Bob

Hope and then-Vice President Richard Nixon. The jamboree was so

memorable, the street that ran by it now bears its name.

It was also memorable enough for folks such as Webb and Mike

Sampson of Newport Coast that they ended up moving to the area. Fifty

years ago, Sampson traveled two days by train from Oregon.

“I thought to myself, ‘Gee, when I grow up, I wanna live here,’”

he said. “Now I do.”

It’s hard to blame Sampson for that decision, which didn’t take

his Boy Scout background to make.