Tradition Facts

A Junior Ranger badge cannot be bought. Kids have to earn it. They finish an activity book about the park. Then a ranger swears them in on the spot. Right hand up, they take the oath. About 450,000 kids do this every year. Yosemite alone once swore in 22,600 in a single year. Every one of them still walks out wearing a real badge.

A million-plus FFA members wear the same blue corduroy jacket. It began as one Ohio band's uniform. In 1933, teacher Gus Lintner ordered the jackets from a local store. FREDERICKTOWN was stitched across the back in gold. His band wore them to the Kansas City convention. Delegates voted it into FFA's official dress for every member. Now each member's own state goes across the back.

In 1982 Vietnam veteran John Devitt went to the dedication of the Wall in Washington and wanted people who could never make the trip to feel what he felt. With other veterans he built a half-size copy carrying the same names and first set it up in Tyler, Texas in 1984. Two copies of The Moving Wall still travel the country, about a week in each town, from April to November.