Were Any Of You Scouts Or Guides

[philshelton]

just been watching 100 years of guiding on bbc2 with my wife who runs brownies and and we were saying what a great organisation scouting and guiding is and how it is a shame that numbers are falling yet young people have nothing to do. I wondered how many of you guys were ever involved in scouts or guides, cubs or brownies, ventures or rangers and what you got out of it as well as your best memory.

 

 

 

 

just to kick things off I was a cub, scout and venture scout and now help run a scout and guide band

[ibrooks]

Very similar to you really - I was in the Cubs, Scouts and Venture Scouts. I've also been a leader in pretty much every section at one time or another (Beavers, Cubs, Scouts Venture Scouts). Unfortunately I don't have the time nowadays but I still keep in touch with the local groups and do help out on events and activities on an as and when basis.

 

Shortly before I started working where I am now the office had been sent on an outwards bound course (never had a jolly like that since though). It amazed me how many of the things they had done had apparently caused them problems when they were things I knew at the time most of our Cubs could have done with their eyes closed.

 

Iain

[steve in stockport]

I was a Cub for a week or so, but got asked not to return after a misdemeanor involving the Union Flag, spent my teenage years as a spike haired or crew cut punk rocking rebel.

Calmed down and settled down, had two sons with Laura, both boys have been Beavers and Cubs, oldest went on to Scouts, while youngest went on to Air Cadets.

Have been a Cub Scout Leader with the pack I was ejected from for the last eight years, and Laura has been helping out too for the last year or so.

[Guest RichardO]

I was in the cubs and scouts but I missed out on venture scouts (I'm not sure if the groups even had a venture unit).

Went to a different group to become a leader around 15 years ago, and ended up leading 2 groups a week.

 

Become form W (kayaking) qualified, and assistant in most mountaineering activiities until I became disolusioned with the politics and amount of free time the association required for the "common sense" leadership qualifications, (I was commuting 3 or 4 hours a day) and quit. Went back a couple of years later but nothing had changed so didn't bother again.

 

I was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done with too many memories to just stick one or two down.

 

Rich...

[fry61]

Cubs & Scouts, remember well the rough & tumble games in the hut,trying to gain merit ? badges,coveting a "bone" woggle (couldn't ever afford one) camp fires, baking bread on a stick, "raids" to opposing groups across country at night;good times had every week. Supported local group up to retirement,now live away from them.

Is down-turn due to Elf & safety plus checks to see if you are a proper person to be in charge of youngsters?

[Shaft]

I was in the Cubs & then the scouts, moved away before Venture age.

 

Brilliant days, camping at Walesby, bridge building, even enjoyed the remembrance parade's. Gave a sense of pride that's sadly missing these days.

 

A work friend has 2 lads in scouts and he says health and safety over kill as ruined it??

 

Nick.

[Guest scrabster]

I remember being a cub back in 1968ish and going on a march around the town on rememberance sunday.all the memories came back a few years ago when the brother-in-law gave me a dvd to watch of old Darlaston Town.I saw my dad in a photo of his works football team and one of him in the cricket team,thats where he got his nickname(Cannonball) from,must have been the velocity he hit the ball at.anyway back to the cubs,they held a garden party at the vicarage which is in the next street to me now,and everyone was in fancy dress.i was a sailor,brother was robin hood and sis was a giant sunflower,all the costumes made by mum.when this dvd was on and watching the scouts and guides marching around the streets i kept thinking it was familiar not knowing it had been filmed.Then the film changed to colour and to this garden party and there were the three of us in our costumes throwing balls at plates on a stand and eating toffee apples.i was stunned when i saw it,40 odd years ago and i can still remember the cubs,my aunt was the leader for the guides.i recall her not being amused when we missed a march one sunday,we went to Rhyl to uncle Jacks caravan who was her brother and they had words when we got home.

ahh memories of childhood,i could write a book.

jess.

oh heres me going on,forgot the daughters in the first year of guides and she loves it.

[grayrobin]

Grandkids are in the cubs and scouts, wife has full time job sewing badges on uniforms. I was in the 39th Birmingham branch of the Boys Brigade [just as good as the scouts] lots and lots of happy memories. Graham

[miikae]

I joined the Cubs after comming back from a 2 year holiday in Malta in 1952, then the Scouts 32nd Walderslade troupe ,had many very enjoyable summer camps as i was the tree climbing rigger and test pilot for the death slide and they could not keep me off it, ended up as troupe leader for a couple of years and flag bearer at the Saint Georges day parades to Rochester Cathedral, the high winds were a problem at times , i finaly left when i was 15 and started my apprenticeship far away from Chatham up north in Loughborough for Brush Elect Eng Co, the start of a life of riley traveling all over the globe until i called it a day at 32 due to my parents ill health.

 

To conclude the scouts taught me a lot of which i will always be greatfull, how to be independant and to stand on your own 2 feet plus being responsable for ones own actions and being prepared for what the world will throw at you.

 

I could say that i started my traveling life at the age of 5 when we flew to Malta in a Viking (my sister and i the only children on the flight and i was allowed onto the flight deck as a treat, never seen so many dials) with 3 stops for fuel Paris Nice and Rome then Malta where the Lancasters flew daily from Luca, came back to the UK on the P&Os SS Windrush which caught fire and partialy sunk the very next year in the Bay of Biscay on the same voyage bringing back service families.

 

HSE killed off the British Bulldog that was so much fun and charactor building , i loved it.

[trextr7monkey]

I was always a bit suspicious of the para military stuff but got into the outdoors at secondary school through a couple of keen teachers who would happily lend us the school climbing gear and we went off hitch hiking to the hills and crags at the weekends, got into a local climbing club -Sunderland then at Aberdeen and never looked back. We learned by our mistakes and thought for ourselves.

Was involved with the air cadets for a while to go gliding on Sundays which was great , unfortunately we disagrreed on important teenage issues such as hair length my mates all had long hair and I looked like the spy who had come in out of the cold apart from a couple of hours a week when I was time warped back to Wartime Britain. Even then I wasn't too keen on the para military stuff and jingoism.

 

The acquistion of a motorbike greatly improved transport arrangements. Met a few mates who had been venture scouts and it seemed they had gained a lot from it but not had so many near death experiences ;D.

Have been involved with supervising D of E groups at school for 10 years now but have just packed it in due to the hassles associated with it - driving mini buses that weren't particularly well maintained, onerous form filling for risk assesments and the fact that while out of school on expeditiins they wouldn't put some one in the workshops so I had to set piles of desk work which all had to be marked on return.

I think the scout movement has been a force for the good but has ben dogged [no pun intended] by a minority of dodgey leaders which by the time the media have hyped it up scares people off.

I take my hat off to anyone still involved in running it all.

 

 

Mike

Edited February 7, 2010 by trextr7monkey

[Guest peter2b2002]

venture scouts , boys brigade then ATC for the flying and shooting then girls came along and my life changed

peter2b

[Graham B]

Yes,

DId the lot, cubs, scouts, seniors - ventures, member of first joint sex venture unit, camping all over the continent etc..

Helped out at ventures until I moved away from my "home" area.

[Knock-on]

Like Steve, I was expelled asked not to return from the Cubs. Don't think I really towed the party line and I was never very good at standing at the back of a line

 

Few years later I joined the Air Cadets which was great. Shoot stuff, flying, blowing sh*t up, Rugby, British Bulldog, Assault courses and camps. Everything a growing lad needs. However, there was a rather unfortunate episode on a night exercise where an interrogation of a member of another squadron was frowned upon. After all, we would never have let the crow scarer actually go off and how was we to know he was an adjutant? If he wasn't wearing a rank, he was lucky not to have been shot as a spy in our eyes

 

Not long after that, I moved away from the area and joined the Pub where I've been happy ever since

[ibrooks]

The bureacracy has definitely put a dent in the activities that the Scouts can do and I think taken a lot out of the movement.

 

One of my fondest memories is from a camp we attended locally with a visiting group of Swedish Scouts. On the day we arrived at the site we met a group of Guides across the field who had tried to raise their flag only for the bottom rope to come off leaving it nicely bundled at the top of the pole with no way to get it back. The warden wouldn't go up the pole as it was rotten and due to come down at the end of the season anyway (he was going to post it back to them once the pole was chopped down). We however had the mad Swede - Klaus! We wanted the exercise to be a surprise so it couldn't be at night as by the time the girls and their leaders had turned in it was dark and even Klaus isn't quite daft enough to climb a rotten flag-pole in the dark. So.... VERY early one morning we got up and went to the warden's house to "borrow" a ladder. Whilst walking past one of the farm buildings between the wardens house and the field we were camped in several people appeared watching us at one of the windows. One of our lads just said "well officer, it was like this" at which point all the English contingent dropped the ladder because we were laughing so hard whilst the Swedes looked at us like we were daft. So the trek with the ladder resumed with us trying to explain the charge "going equipped" to them. Back to the field and Klaus goes up the ladder to get the flag back. Then we set off to return the ladder whilst Klaus sets about modifying the flag. He un-picked the Swedish flag with the Scout emblem from his uniform and sewed in into the corner of the Guide's flag. It then went back up the pole properly attached to the ropes and unfurled. Needless to say the Guides were fairly pleased that they could get their flag back. Their group has stayed in touch ever since visiting both us and Klaus's group in Sweden. The little Swedish flag is still sewn into the bottom of their flag which has been framed when it was retired. The replacement apparently also has a replacement badge as they want to keep the story going.

 

Iain

[Guest TerryBarry]

I was never in the Cubs or Scouts.

However I with a couple of others was expelled from the Woodcraft Folk.

All of my children have been members

I once went to a "Father and Son" camp with two of my lads.

Quess who was carted off to hospital with a broken leg