Wednesday 22 February 2017

World Thinking Day

Hello, thank you for dropping in, as always, it's lovely to see you here.  Today is World Thinking Day, the day when Girl Guides and Girl Scouts all over the world celebrate their membership of this international organisation.  When I was a Brownie Guide, we were allowed to wear our Brownie uniforms to school on Thinking Day, as it was called then, because it was the most important date in our Brownie calendar, and our pack meeting that week would focus on thinking about Brownies in other countries and lighting candles (guiding lights?) for them. 
 
Thinking Day dates from 1926 and 22nd February was chosen because it was the birthday of both Lord Robert Baden-Powell, who founded the Movement in 1910, and his wife, Lady Olave, who was still World Chief Guide when I was a child. 
 
The Girl Guide Movement was a huge part of my life when I was growing up: I joined the Brownie Guides when I was seven years old, became a Girl Guide when I was eleven, became a Ranger Guide when I was fourteen and left the Movement when I went to university at the age of eighteen.  Along the way, I spent time helping to lead a Cub Scout pack (as a Girl Guide) and a Brownie pack (as a Ranger) in order to earn my service badges, so it would be strange if "Thinking Day" didn't flash up in my mind on 22nd February every year, wouldn't it?  And it would be strange if I hadn't kept a memento or two from those years, wouldn't it?

 
 
I still have my Brownie Handbook. It's quite fragile now as it was very well-used, so the cover has become detached, but here it is.  This is the book which taught me how to wash up: glassware first, then cutlery, crockery and pots and pans, in that order.  As I opened its pages yesterday for the first time in many years, so many of them were familiar.  I also have a few of the badges which were sewn onto my uniform - I suppose they were taken off when the dress was passed down to a younger sister.  You can see that I was a Seconder in the Kelpies - actually, you can probably only work that out if you were a member of a Scottish Brownie pack as they didn't have Kelpies in England.  I started off as an English Pixie but after we moved to Scotland, I became a Kelpie.  And as a sideline, can I just say that Kelpies are not very nice and would be a very bad influence on impressionable young Brownies?  It's probably the worst possible name for a Brownie Six.   I should also like to add that I am not of the beret-wearing Brownie generation shown on the cover but very firmly a brown-woolly-bobble-hat Brownie.  I am disappointed that I only have two of my interest badges: Hostess and Musician.  I was definitely more interesting than that, although I didn't achieve my Knitter's Badge, I am quite sure of that because according to the Handbook, you had to knit a pair of socks or a pair of gloves or mittens, using two or four needles!  Before the age of twelve?????  I couldn't knit a pair of socks until I was forty-eight and I have never knitted a pair of mittens.  Brownies were obviously cut from a different cloth in the olden days.  So, shall we move on to my Girl Guiding years? -

  
I don't have my Handbook but I do have a small number of Guide Annuals, one of my era and the rest dating from before I was born.  I acquired the older ones at jumble sales and fetes because I found them fascinating. 

 
 Yes, I still have my tunic - although sadly, not my hat, which was navy blue and, in my mind, made me look like an air hostess, in the days when we had air hostesses and they were glamorous and appeared to live exciting, romantic lives.  In those pockets I always carried the six essential items which every keen Guide carried if she obeyed the exhortation to Be Prepared for emergencies: a safety pin, a piece of string, a pencil, a notebook, a clean handkerchief (inside an envelope, to keep it clean) and a 2p piece.  The 2p piece was to use to make a telephone call from a public call box.  You would have to do this to call for help if your friend was injured, after you had bandaged her up with the clean handkerchief and the safety pin and left your other friend looking after her, because you only went out in threes.  It's no wonder I'm so risk averse, and that I need such a large handbag.  I enjoyed being a Guide and I learnt a great deal: first aid, camping (if you need to make a stand for your washing-up bowl out of sticks, I'm your woman), building fires, caring about other people, commitment, service, working as a team, leadership - you may have noticed my Nightingale Patrol Leader's stripes.  Would you like to take a closer look at my interest badges? 

  
Ah yes, the Little House Emblem which shows that I achieved all the badges in that group: Cook, Child Nurse, Knitter, Laundress, Homemaker and Hostess.  I am wincing as I type this because it doesn't seem very, you know, empowering for girls, does it?  I would like to think that the presence of Backwoodsman and Camper may go some way towards balance, and there are also writer, cyclist and local history badges there; perhaps it was not just when I was growing up that Guiding was a huge part of my life?  So, shall we move on to the 1980s and my Ranger Guide years? -

 
 
This is all I seem to have kept, my Handbook and an old novel I picked up in a second hand bookshop.  No uniform (navy blue skirt, aqua shirt and navy forage cap), no badges.  I do remember a grand day out at the Palace of Westminster where we met our local MP and were taken up Big Ben.  I was always one of three in the colour party at events but I never actually carried the colours because Louise was 6' tall and we would have looked ridiculous if she hadn't been in the middle.  We did quite a lot of activities with the local Venture Scout group (moving swiftly on) and quite a lot without our leader, who didn't like camping.  A Ranger Guide Unit was a safe place for a teenage girl to be in a scary world. 

So I may light a candle this evening, and I wish all former and current Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers around the world Happy World Thinking Day.

See you soon,
 
Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x


 

21 comments:

  1. Fabulous Mrs. T, I can just imagine you trying your best and collecting such a lot of badges with all the requirements fulfilled to be able to sew it on your uniform. I ended up at ballet class instead but the three little kettles all enjoyed being part of the Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. x

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    1. We will do our best! I had forgotten about that. Thank you. And now I know why I never went to ballet lessons! x

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  2. Wonderful! I'm laughing at your description of what you must carry in your bag and the event that might logically ensue. My little granddaughter has just joined the Brownies, but I don't think it's called that because she's only 6. Wonder why it's called Thinking Day?

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    1. I believe it's called Thinking Day because we are encouraged to think about our sisters all around the world. I think that's quite enlightened for it's time. And here, we now have Rainbows for the 5 and 6 year-olds but having just done a quick check, I think they are called Sparks in Canada. x

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  3. Happy Thinking Day! I too was in Brownies and Sprites (which I think is the new Sparks here). I loved Brownies, but these things were only open to my sister and I if our oldest sister was interested in them. Once she quit Guides, that was it for my other sister and I (my parents were very stuck on the "oldest" child being their guiding force). I still have my one badge for stamp collecting and my beret, scarf, belt and leather pouch where we also had our emergency 10 cents for a phone call. Not sure where I was supposed to be all alone without an adult when I was 7 or 8. There was a very strong influence on the "housewife" duties when I was in the group too. I remember having to go to one of the leader's homes to make tea. Oddly enough I don't remember Thinking Day at all, but do remember being in a huge parade of all guides, brownies in Hamilton. Fun times, even though they're so outdated now. My daughter went as far as Guides, but the leaders were hopelessly dull and she finally quit. My son was in cubs and loved it!
    Wendy

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    1. We had a belt with a little purse on it for our weekly subs. I remember being a bit frustrated with all the domestic stuff when I was a Guide and looking enviously at the Scouts, which girls couldn't join in my day, who were doing adventurous outdoorsy stuff which was more up my street. I think that was all down to the leaders. Our Rangers leader was a bit hopeless but thankfully, we were old enough to organise things for ourselves, with the help of a sympathetic Venture Scouts leader. Both of my girls loved Brownies and one of them went on to enjoy Guides too for a while, but then the company folded due to a leadership crisis. Such a shame. x

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  4. This took me back! I was a Brownie (an Elf) and then a Girl Guide. I am from the generation that had to learn to darn, pack a suitcase, make a sling for a broken limb, be a hostess etc etc. Much of what I learned in Brownies has stayed with me all my life. I am sure that there are girls in our throw-away age who don't know that hair brushes should be washed and that glass should be washed before plates. I went on to be a Sparks leader (for pre-schoolers), a Brown Owl and a Guide Leader as my daughter progressed. I well remember Thinking Day and how special we felt in our Brownie uniforms. I remember having a belt with a small leather purse attached to it. Also hanging from the belt was a pencil and a small knot of rope. Why the rope? No idea!

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    1. It wasn't only when writing this post that I realised just how many life skills I learned through being a member of the Guide Movement. You certainly have given a lot back - well done. I too had a belt with a small leather purse attached, in which I took my subs to the weekly meeting, but I didn't have a pencil or a knot of rope. How funny! It is lovely to see you back. x

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  5. Those were the days, I was actually a Brown Owl for some years as my 3 daughters were very keen.

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    1. Oh well done, good for you. My sister and her husband are Beaver Leaders and I know how much effort and commitment is needed, but you will have given many young girls such positive experiences, some of which will stay with them forever. x

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  6. I was never in any of those groups as we lived in a tiny village and there wasn't anything like that and no car to get to anywhere else. My husband lived in a small town and was in the local Boy's Brigade (run by his Mum and Dad) and then Air Cadets and still has all his badges, pamhlets and sew on strips etc. Fascinating post:)

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    1. Thanks Rosie - and well done to your husband. That must be an interesting collection. It never occurred to me that there were places which didn't have a Brownie Pack - doh! - until my friend read my post and said the same thing, that she lived in the back of beyond and it just wasn't an option. I think that's a shame, but I suppose you don't miss the things you never had, and I'm sure there were compensations. x

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  7. What a fabulous post. I only made the lofty heights of being a brownie pixie. We did go and camp at Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire and I had a wonderful few days. I remember being very popular because I had brought along lots of sweets to eat after lights out. Always have been a bit rebellious lol. B x

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    1. Look out, we're the jolly Pixies, helping people when in fixes! Girls whose mothers had furnished them with midnight snacks were always very popular at camp. Once, there was a girl in my patrol who arrived with an actual holdall full of cakes! x

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  8. Sweet memories - thank you for sharing. I remember the days when 2p paid for a phone call... Marie x

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    1. I am glad you enjoyed it, Marie. My girls laughed when I told them about the 2p slots in the public 'phone boxes. x

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  9. That is fantastic, I hope my children show an interest in the guides/scouts although I'm not sure if they even exist near us, perhaps well have to start it up ourselves!

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    1. Well if anyone could, you could! I've had a quick look and Spanish HQ is in Zaragoza. x

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  10. That is fantastic, I hope my children show an interest in the guides/scouts although I'm not sure if they even exist near us, perhaps well have to start it up ourselves!

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  11. Lovely read. I had that first handbook, I think it is the one with the sea through suitcase to show you how to pack! I think it is interesting to look at your badges now and look at what you do now - for me guiding was highly influencial in what I do now. I had badges in sewing, knitting, riding, cooking, sport, dancing and I even had one for farming in guides! happy memories, of course both my girls go to brownies too. Jo x

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    1. 'see-through' honestly homophones and a teacher too!!! Jo x

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