Guide-ing the way...................

To follow up the Brownie post earlier in the week here is the Girl Guide post. I was asked in assembly today about keeping items are they baggage or justified?

I said that keeping my Brownie badges may have seemed daft to anyone else, but to my daughter it is fascinating, she can see that the badges are now different, and the fact that Mummy was a Brownie is a weird concept for her.

Her new top arrived today so she is now all kitted out, it is half term next week so she will have to wait a bit before she can go in the full kit.

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When I first started Guides in Ashford, Kent, I joined the Blue Bell patrol. We relocated to a village just outside Newmarket not long after this and I joined a new branch.

(Above is my own hat badge)

Bluebells was not a patrol available when I moved, so I joined the Scarlett Pimpernels and was made a second and then finally moved to help set up a new patrol called White Rose. I became a patrol second nad in time Patrol Leader. So I spent ages sewing my new badge on as the bound edging was soooo thick I could hardly get the needle through it.
Above are most of the badges that I gained. Sorry about the cup mark in the photo, I never saw that there with the kitchen halogens lights on. I had not wiped it after dinner, opps.

I did not perhaps gain as many badges as I could have but I do remember clearly the ones that I earned.

The hostess Badge (Teacup and saucer) I think was one of the first that I got and I remember sewing on the badges with the bound edges which were just as difficult to sew as the Brownie Badges.

Above is also the Crafters badge, toy maker and stitchery, so there was already a hint of what I might do in the future.

There is also the collectors badge (I collected stamps at the time I think) and readers badge, so there is the link to my book mountain that I have talked about before plus my love of collecting powder compacts!

Cooks Badge. Now I remember being dropped off at a lady's house for the evening while a cooked an entire meal. Now you could not do that today without being CRB checked and goodness knows what else!
The above badge is the service flash which do remember being very proud to gain.

This badge was for..

"This is the service flash and it is given not for preparing to give service, as in Service Badges and Service Emblem, but for carrying it out. It is a badge for "Guide Action", not just your daily Good Turns but for continuing service to the community or to individuals"

The Guide Handbook 1979

I earned this by helping every week with the local Brownie pack that I used to belong to. One evening a brownie managed to get herself locked in the toilet and I got her out by twiddling the screw which operated the lock using my guide pen knife. Probably cannot have one of those now. Got a real pat on the back for that one. I went every week until I left to move to Cambridgeshire and was given my service flash before going.



In the main group picture there is a red and green badge, I did have a yellow one as well, but I do not know where it is. These are given for progress each year and there are guidelines for this in the handbook. I gained three out of a possible four of these. The last one would have been blue.

Above is actually my Mum's guide belt and the whistle is in fact an old police whistle that my Grandad used and gave to my Mum.

I wore this belt on the outside and then the uniform was changed so those of us who had them wore them under the shirt which was worn outside of the skirt waistband. I think it looked smarter on the outside but there you go. I have still got it but I can not find it, so this is from a website that sells this kind of thing.

It is in the house somewhere because we were only looking at it just over a year ago.

Over the weekend I shall pick out some pages of the handbook as many of the topics are in fact relevant today!

Hope this has not been too boring, but I wanted to record this somewhere before I lost these badges for good.

Have a good weekend

xx