Any ex-Girl Guides on here?

I was a brownie a guide and leader,,,,left when I married, in Ireland girls could not camp out so they had a few houses we were sent to for a week or weekend.....All dorms of 10each they pretended they were haunted so each night I was scared stiff..Lots of fun though...Went away from 8 years old mad when you think of it...Once went to switzerland....Bristol and isle of men...Lots of fun games campfires ....Such very bitchy girls ..My answer was sneezing powder on pillow and itching powder in bed......Such fun and brought them to their senses.....Was never caught out...Had an armful of badges,,most tests were easy as I was not that practical. My badge was stolen in house robbery and I never got a photo in uniform...Good times

Yes I was in the guides, went camping a couple of times. - 0nce to Cromer and once to the South Coast near Worthing I think, we travelled in the back of what looked like an old army lorry. One year our leader had recently bought a beagle puppy who came along with her - you can imagine what fun it had running round the field and squeezing under the sides of the tent after we went to bed to give us all a goodnight kiss! I seem to remember that the group I was in was called seagull, and I had loads of badges but can't remember much else.

I was a Brownie then s Guide. I detested both. I think my parents packed me off to have some time together. I remember singing something to the Red Flag tune and having to promise to honour the Queen or some such thing.

Coming home was a laugh -calling into the chippie for a bag of scrumps and a can of coke was most definitely the highlight of the evening. .

I was a Brownie then a Guide. I have memories of building a fire and boiling water in a baked bean tin hung from a tripod of sticks over the fire. Cooking something in a scooped out orange skin springs to mind but can't remember what we cooked.
Do Brownies still have to learn to tie knots behind their backs ? I have never needed to tie a reef knot behind my back, apron always tied in a bow.

I was a brownie, sixer of the Imps. Went on to guides run at my school. Happy memories of a camp on another teacher's father's farm. We were invaded by cows one morning and I can still picture our geography teacher chasing after them in her nightie with a big stick!

I was a fairly indifferent Brownie and Guide, but DD was keen on both. We were very amused when she got her Jester's Badge in Brownies, so a double triumph! She also managed to catch chicken-pox on Brownie pack holiday.

I was a Guide in the 60s and loved it. Still involved with Guiding - Brown Owl for 30 years! There are nationwide groups for retired and/or supporters of Guiding, called the Trefoil Guild. I belong to a local one that is quite 'young and active', and have made good friends there.

Not a chance!
I was thrown out of the Brownies after my first visit!
I refused to dance round a papier mache toadstool & said it was 'soppy'.
They told my mother they didn't need subversive girls like me & asked her not to bring me back.

I was delighted as I never wanted to go anyway.
I can't say I've changed much TBH.

A queens guide here! Looking back was not the uniform awful, but I did not know any better then.

When at college in London I stayed in 'Olave' house, Earls court for my last year as all cooking was done for us. Also quite a few of the patrons had tickets to the Albert Hall and if they did not use them, they were stuck on the notice board for anyone to use. I read today that a box, seating 12 is for sale in excess of 2 million. I did enjoy these concerts.

3 generations in our family of brownies, guides and rangers with the littlest GD on waiting list for rainbows.
My first trips abroad were with the guides (and DS attended a scout jamboree in Denmark).
I have only happy memories of my time in guides.

I was a brownie and 'flew up' to the guides and became a Queen's Guide and enjoyed wearing the old uniforms, complete with the lanyard. We were very lucky in our village to have a lady who was dedicated to the guiding movement and we were all encouraged to take as many badges, attend camps, jamborees etc. Not long after I left we had to merge with the neighbouring village due to the fall in numbers and it eventually closed down. I always made and cooked scotch eggs over the open fire whenever my patrol went out for the day or when camping out! Happy memories and definitely a positive factor in my childhood and teenage years.

Are Guides still allowed to carry knives? We had hooks on our belts for knives and whistles, but I wonder if current laws against knives have made it impossible now. However, one of my GSs has acquired a rather imposing Scout knife which I think looks quite dangerous! Four GC have come up through the BP organisations: the boys through Beavers, Cubs and Scouts; GD through Rainbows, Brownies and...Scouts and is now a Cub leader which she took on as her community work for Duke of Edinburgh Award she's also an Army cadet). She loves 'her little cubs'! Sorry there are no Guides in that generation, but the spirit is still there.

I was a Brownie, a Guide and a Ranger and a Queens Guide. When I was 16 (having been in the Rangers for a couple of years) I joined the Venture Scouts for two reasons, I was a bit bored with Rangers (though I did both for a while) and Ventures had boys. One of my funniest memories from that time is I was still helping out at one of the local Brownie Packs after I joined Ventures and as 'Vents' and Brownies was on the same night, the shock on the face of the spinster lady who ran the Brownies when she saw me being picked up from Brownies by my then boyfriend on his Norton (I was 16!)

I enjoyed being a girl guide patrol leader and taking my patrol to the local gravel pits to light fires and cook dampers and bake eggs suspended by safety pins. all great fun.

I also had a lovely sheath knife in a leather case I could slip onto my belt and wear behind me if we were going to light a fire in a field because you had to use it to cut the turf which must be replaced at the end to make the site of the fire invisible. I kept 'punk' in my breast pocket so that it was dry at all times. If one did not have punk with one in wet weather one looked under a Hawthorne hedge to find dry twigs. Lovely times and we weren't arsonists and did not misuse the knives.

Camping we carried water etc. and we painted the billy cans with whitewash before we started because it was easier to wash the soot off afterwards.

1957 I attended the Baden Powell Centenary Camp in Windsor Great Park and made many friends from Norway and other countries.

I also had a part in a Ralph Reader show in London.

all great fun. Thak you to the Girl Guides Association.

I was a Brownie. I had fire lighting skills as a kid anyway, because gran still used the range for heat, hot water and cooking and parents had open fires, however, I now find it all a struggle and am currently using more firelighters than logs (well that's what it feels like) and daily failures are getting me down.

I really don't know how arsonists cope with it all.

We didn't have Guides in our village, but our neighbour's mum started a Junior Red Cross troupe where we did similar things, with certificates for First Aid and Child Care. We went to camps and learned the appropriate skills (although we camped as a family anyway)

Later I became a Guider and had a lovely time with that - both in the Red Cross and later in the Guides we had to do a regular session of square-bashing (which has stood me in good stead ever since!)

When I came to Germany to do au pairing, I contacted the local American military community and spent a year as a Group Leader in the Girl Scouts with them. Camping was a very different matter, but still great fun. The older Leaders could tell tales of their camping experiences in the States with bears and wolves strolling through the camp.

No, was never a Brownie or Guide ( I think I would have liked it though)
One of our DD's was a Brownie and a Guide and loved it, the other DD ( a rebellious one ) wanted to be a Brownie but only lasted for three meetings, and our boy was in Beavers Cubs but wasn't keen enough to carry on for more than six months.
So I guess only one of our DC could build a fire in the woods.

i was a brownie [a sixer too] and flew up to guides where i got to the dizzying heights of patrol leader before i discovered boys! that was it then as i was too self concious of all the stuff in my blouse pockets plus my rather large natural "boobs" and i gave up.
my daughter went to brownies but a can't remember if she ever went to guides. my son was a cub and then went on to sea scouts for a while.
my second grandaughter decided she wanted to be a cub and joined a couple of years ago - she went up to scouts last summer and thoroughly enjoys her outings .......... the last one was a "shooting day" where they were taught to shoot air rifles!!!
however i can't remember what badges i got in either brownies or guides or which six/patrol group i was in.

It is heartening to me that there are others who were not welcome in the guides/brownies!!

I was a Brownie but after that, as a forces child, we never seemed to stay anywhere long enough to establish that sort of continuity. I wonder what constitutes 'thrift' nowadays? To get your badge, I mean.

I too was a brownie, Guide, Ranger and Guider. Now a member of the Trefoil Guild. I was a member of the 61st Greyfriars Church Coy. in Aberdeen and we still meet annually for a get-together. There are 42 of us still in touch and we have fond memories of our Guider the late Miss Vera Anderson MBE who was an inspiration to us all. Any other ex 61st girls on Gransnet? You are welcome to join us !!! Get in touch via Facebook.

DH was a Scout leader years ago.
He is still much more practical than me

(hence his annoyance at my Granny Knots

Emily Harburn - Similar memories to me about taking the patrol out to cook over a fire. My best friend and I were both patrol leaders - Daffodils and RedRoses. We all went together on the bus to the nearest woods.
Must have taken some organising, we would only be early teens, because I think we left in the buildup to O levels.
That kind of training is excellent for learning to take responsibility etc.

Hello Tricia.
Yes I was a guide 1956-59. I loved the meetings, camping, the lot. I was seconder of Thistle patrol. 2nd Alnwick.
Alnwick then was a very quiet little town not much doing for young people, so I really enjoyed my thursday guide nights.
We had great fun camping, so did our Captain's dog.
Happy days.