Any ex-Girl Guides on here?

I was never at Brownie as there werent any in my village, but I was a keen guide and eventually patrol leader of the swallows. I absolutely loved going to camp - we had those bell tents someone else has mentioned and our own groundsheets and wrapped up bankets with blanket pins to make sleeping bags. We had to clear it all off the floor onto home-made gadgets (remember them?) in the daytime and Braille the tents to let the grass air. I had an armful of badges including thrift I think, and got to First Class but not to Queens Guide. Later I was a cadet and helped with a Brownie Pack and much later after having children I became a Guide Captain for a year or two, until we moved away. Loved the campfires and the singing too.
You had to do a reef knot behind your neck to do up your tie (which doubled as a triangular bandage for a sling ) in those days! I think as well as the whistle and penknife on our belts.we had a bit of whipped string .
Guides these days are a pale imitation of all this!

Blinko - re Thrift badge. There doesn't seem to be one for UK guides. But I found one for Singapore guides
"1. Having a savings account of at least 3 months’ standing and show that she has added to it regularly from her savings or pocket money.

2. Bring a certificate from her parents stating that she is not wasteful in the home and is keeping her belongings in good condition.

3. Bring to the test an article that proves that she is thrifty. E.g. repairing toys or equivalent.
Answer questions on the real meaning of thrift and keep a notebook over a period of at least a month of ways in which she is able to put thrift into practice."
Maybe that's why Singapore is so prosperous!

Sea Rangers - I wanted to be one of them, but lived as far inland as it was possible to be! Was Brownie, Guide, Land Ranger and helped out with a Guide company. Son tried cubs, but found that it was a pretty uncouth troop - totally ignored the law and promise and the language was choice, to say the least. I got cooks, writers, readers, first aid, music lover and singer's badges. I went to an international camp at Malvern in 1961 and the weather was horrendous - makes Glasto look dry - one night all the tents blew down and we were moved into the marquee.

Yes I loved guides and went for 5 years getting my Queens Guide badge in the end. We had the most brilliant Captain. She was a school teacher and unmarried and hated camping but we went every year for a week.

Slept in Bell tents we had to erect and also the toilet block. We had smallish oil cans with a wooden seat on that we emptied in the 'lats' every day. We cooked everything on an open fire too.

I was head of the For-get-me-not patrol. We had to make porridge every morning for breakfast and dinners were then done by a selected team every evening. If you wanted a potato for dinner then you peeled one- no peeling no potato.

I look back on the whole experience with real fondness.

Do tell Luckygirl why did you get thrown out ? Were you a sinner like me ?

I did manage to become a Red Cross cadet without getting into trouble.

In my heyday I had the honour of being Rutland's first ever Queens Guide. I was also the youngest member of a party of guides and guiders who attended a World Camp in Doe Lake Ontario Canada 1957. I still have a collection of memorabilia from that trip and often wonder if any guiding association would be interested in accepting this collection of archive material. Oh the joys of memory lane . Thank you for this thread.

Got my Queen's Guide badge.

I was a Brownie, Guide and Ranger. My Mum was Guide Captain and is still in the Trefoil Guild.
I remember going to someone's house and doing their ironing for a badge....

I enjoyed being in the Guides and still count 2 of my friends as from Guides all those years ago. I wasn't a perfect Guide though, I got my Handyman badge one of the tests was to understand how to wire a plug with the old colour scheme for the wires and also learn the new colour scheme. I was pleased when doing my Physics O Level exam a few years later on the questions was 'Please draw a picture of the 3 point plug, annotating the colour and purpose of each set of wires'.
We also in guides were taking part in Queens Guide Badge community activities, clearing weeds. singing at older peoples homes at Christmas but then my parents and we moved and there was not a Guide pack in our new area.
I really enjoyed it!

I loved the Brownies and then the Guides after I 'flew up'. I was an Elf in the Brownies and a Wren in the Guides. Looking back I learned so much that was useful - hospital corners and bed baths for the Sick Nurse Badge, bathing a baby and putting him to bed for the Child Care badge, First Aid using our triangular tie as a sling, cooking, swimming. I think I did writers badge and the artist badge and many more that I can't remember, developing a range of skills including the alphabet in sign language as our local cobbler was deaf and he taught us. I had an armful of badges and then my First Class. Pittcity I think the ironing was part of the Homemaker badge.

I can still tie the knots in appropriate situations and remember learning to light a fire with two matches. We cooked potatoes, and bananas with chocolate in the middle and also sausages though my mother always sent me with bacon, which was not the same. I loved camping on the one time I was allowed to go. It was only about 4 miles away on the bus but it felt like another world, using the latrines (lats) and washing in the river!

I still remember most of the songs. My favourite was 'Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver, where still the mighty moose wanders at will' which we sang in rounds. I thought it was beautiful.

Not only that but I pretended to be doing Guide activities when we went to the coffee bar to chat up boys!!!!

I was a Brownie and loved being one. Briefly became a guide, attracted by the hat at the time because it looked like those air hostess's of the day wore, which in my 11 year old mind represented sophistication and glamour, wrong! Alas I acquired no fire lighting skills during my brief time as a guide, or any badges for that matter, just the hat?

I was thrown out of the guides. I had been a brownie and loved it but when I moved up to guides the Guider left and was replaced by the Brown Owl, who treated us all like oversized brownies; so I behaved like an oversized brownie of about 6.

Not surprisingly my mother was asked to stop bringing me to Guide meetings. To be honest it served me right.

Loved my time in Brownies, Guides then Rangers in the 50's and 60's. As a Brownie I remember one task for a badge was learning to back a book with brown paper - what a wonderful skill to have! Went on pack holiday with the Brownies and a lovely helper used to come into the dormitory and wish us good night with a big hug for those who were feeling homesick which probably wouldn't be allowed these days. Then went camping with the guides and the camp leader confiscated all 'luxury' toiletries like hand or face cream saying we didn't need them on a campsite. About the only time I rebelled and argued back with her.

I loved Guides! I was leader of the Kingfisher patrol It was during the war but we still went to camp and powdered egg made wonderful scrambled egg for breakfasts! We used to go on marches with other organisations and a band on National days - I suppose it was to keep up morale! It was certainly fun! I was also a cadet in the St John's Ambulance Brigade. We learnt some useful first aid and all kinds of bandaging - and the envelope corners someone mentioned. In Guides used to have campfires with the Scouts - definitely an attraction!

I was in the "Girl Guides" we were called the "Chaffinches" unfortunately they made us tie our hair back and I hated my stick out ears so had to leave.

I was in the Land Rangers from 1962-67 when I got married. Was never a guide or brownie but loved the rangers! Lots of opportunities to meet rover scouts, I ended up marrying one actually!! Golden wedding anniversary this year! Still friends with many of our ranger/rover contemporaries. Many life skills learnt, but still cannot read a map, but can light a fire with half a match and a thimble full of wood shavings, very useful skill!
Did anybody else go to the guide chalet in Switzerland? We had great time, we would go out for a "walk" in the evening, and meet local lads in bar!! Well we were 17!!!!!! The ranger leaders were saints, I could not imagine being responsible for a group of 'young ladies' aged 15 to 17 on the loose in Switzerland. We met some lads on the train to Basel, and we went to their carriage to play cards!!! Only we did not know that they were on route for Italy, and as train pulled into station, only to leave half of carriages to go to Italy, did we twig what was happening and ran through the corridors like things possessed and just made it. Must write a book about it!!! Happy times!

I was a Brownie and sixer of the Elves. I flew up to Guides with Brown Owl's favourite, and had to listen to her telling everyone that 'If ever there was a Queen's Guide W** will be one.' Followed by 'And then there's Piggly'.
Guides didn't go much better. I was patrol leader of the Robins and got my First Class, but my mother, who had been a Guide Captain, told me I couldn't do my Queen's Guide because Queen's Guides had to be exceptional.
I really loved Guide Camps though. My mother's friend ran camps for her Guides and took Guides from other Companies if their Guiders hadn't got Camp Permits. She used to book farmers' fields and as long as there was a cold tap we were fine. We collected water in buckets, often from several fields away, collected wood in old ground sheets and cut turf before setting up the fire with a metal grid on top of old bricks. The farmer dug a 'lat pit' and the Guiders used to empty the Elsans into the pit every evening after camp fire. Guide Camp was the highlight of my year.

I was a Brownie and flew up to Guides, only stayed in Guides until I was 121/2. I rejoined the Movement about 25 years ago as a leader Rainbows, then Brownies and finally Guides about 19 years ago still do Guides and Rainbows. We still teach our girls firelighting, cooking on open fires, pioneering(last time we built Sedan Chairs and then had races round our hall) the girls love it. We go camping to Waddow Hall every year, live fairly close. Now use modern lightweight tents, toilet blocks with flush toilets and showers, no need to dig latrines and put up toilet tents, also do an Indoor too, not all girls enjoy camping.

Hameringham I'm sure there will be a Division/County Archivist in your area who would be love to have your memorabilia

Loved being in the Kingfisher patrol 1951-55! Polished my badge hard (smelling that cottony stuff just thinking about it) and wish I still had the badge! All sorts of things had to be carried in those breast pockets including the essential punk and 2 matches!
We were expected to go to church parades and vied to carry the flag, having polished the large badge atop the staff. When I rose to the giddy heights of Kingfisher patrol leader I proudly wore my leather sheathed knife on my belt as I travelled by bus to and from Guides. Imagine young teenaged girls doing that nowadays!
My Guiding days ended when I began to notice boys!

Do any other Midlanders remember the huge international Scout Jamboree in Sutton Park? A goodlooking and confident girl from school who lived near made the most of it and met boys from several different countries! My friend and I went and had a look round but were too shy to talk to anyone, I suspect that many of the boys were also inhibited, it was the 1950s, just pre-Rock'n'Roll I think, before teenagers were invented!

Grandma - I loved the sing songs at the end of meetings too, especially 'Land of the Silver Birch' and 'Vreneley'. Years later I met a German girl called Vreneley and told her I thought it was a beautiful name. She turned out to hate it as old fashioned and preferred to be called Veronica!

Getting really carried away by long buried memories here! we did some basic First Aid. When Granny scalded her hand I used my skills and was delighted to be complimented by the ambulance man.
Why isn't basic First Aid taught in every school? It might even save the NHS some money!

Perhaps we should start another thread just for camp fire songs!We used to sing one called 'Under the lilacs she played her guitar' which had apparently been banned.

Oh how i envy you all.

I would have loved to have been a brownie and a guide but we always moved around when i was a child and lived in the middle of now where with no transport so i could not join.

Plus of course we would not have had the money to pay for the uniforms!!!