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Any ex-Girl Guides on here?

(81 Posts)
TriciaF Mon 09-Jan-17 16:54:30

Trying to get our log fire going today, I remembered my introduction to fire-lighting in the Girl guides. Make a pyramid, kindling first etc.
I think I got my fire-lighter's badge, but looked it up and it doesn't exist now, thought the Guides are still going strong, all around the world.
I do remember getting the thrift badge, by using only 2 matches to light the fire in our kitchen at home. It was in a black-leaded range with an oven at the side.
Any other ex- Guides here?

PamSJ1 Tue 10-Jan-17 09:57:07

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!

harrigran Tue 10-Jan-17 09:55:05

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.

gettingonabit Tue 10-Jan-17 09:20:24

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. smile.

starbird Tue 10-Jan-17 02:44:34

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.

Bbnan Mon 09-Jan-17 23:05:00

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

thatbags Mon 09-Jan-17 22:32:14

I was a brownie and a guide, a ranger guide, a brownie leader (snowy owl and tawny owl), and a guide leader. And, most recently, a cub scout leader. What I most remember about being a guide is that I was the only one who could make satisfactory custard on a camp fire and as a guider, the only one whose porridge the guides would eat.

Claudiaclaws Mon 09-Jan-17 22:26:40

I was in Guides. I absolutely loved it. Went on to be a guider.
Many of us from our old Guide company still go to Waddow for a reunion every year. We have a great time.

madcatlady Mon 09-Jan-17 21:11:19

Oh the memories ... even as a brownie we were encouraged to chop our own wood for the campfire as well as use matches to light it and cook on it .. oh the elf and safety horror of today eek.

I remember as a guide going on a county camp for silver jubilee... storm so bad we had to be roused to take down the huuuuge marquee as it was threatening to be blown away / down.

Rangers disbanded sadly as lost leader but I went on to become a tawny owl and then the first rainbow glider in our county... and before some of the rules and guidelines made. We paraded in cathedral for thinking day and rainbows enthused.. loved it.

Lyndylou Mon 09-Jan-17 20:58:12

Really glad I'm not the only one who was asked to leave the Girl Guides. I used to put my uniform on, tell my mum I was going to Guides, then take my subs money to the chip shop and hang around chatting to lads.

Marieeliz Mon 09-Jan-17 20:49:31

Yes I was a Brownie Guide and Ranger. Went to Norway with the Rangers hitch hiking in 1955. It cost me £25. Did not have the money but a few weeks prior to going won £21 in work they did a weekly draw with lollipop sticks with no on. Also camped in pouring rain in Parbold. Camp was moved into Village Hall.

Luckygirl Mon 09-Jan-17 20:18:33

I was thrown out of the guides!!!!

annodomini Mon 09-Jan-17 20:02:58

Our 4d was enough for a bag of chips on the way home! Sometimes we would go to the phone box and 'press button B' to see if someone had forgotten to get their money back. Sometimes we were lucky!

Jalima Mon 09-Jan-17 19:57:27

MargaretX
grin

tiggypiro I wish I had known how to 'tap' the phones as I could have saved a fortune in 4d over the years!

annodomini Mon 09-Jan-17 19:52:52

As a Brownie I was sixer of the Kelpies and as a Guide, leader of the Honesty Patrol. It was a pretty poor company that didn't do very interesting things! I failed my laundress badge twice but the teacher who tested me relented on my third attempt. Teaching for two years in Scotland, I was a Guider in the school Guides. When I taught in Kenya, started a Rangers unit in the school, while a colleague led the Guides. We had some good fun - I remember them cooking a local dish for hours in my kitchen. It smelt awful but was really quite tasty.

Gagagran Mon 09-Jan-17 19:40:49

I was a Brownie and a Guide and then a Guider and eventually formed a Ranger group. Loved it - campfire songs, cooking over wood fires, camping in general,making gadgets for the tents. Some of the happiest days of my life. smile

tiggypiro Mon 09-Jan-17 19:19:55

I've just remembered all the stuff we had to keep in the breast pockets of our uniform. I know it was a lot and included 4 old pennies in case we had to make a phone call. If we didn't have boobs before we put the uniform on we certainly did after! Don't tell on me but we never used the pennies as we knew how to 'tap' the phones.

Antonia Mon 09-Jan-17 19:09:34

I was an obsessive girl guide, patrol leader of the Poppies and very proud of it. On my 60th birthday my dear sister collected souvenirs of each decade of my life, including a guide badge of the right era which she bought on Ebay. It was the trefoil kind, the type that you were supposed to polish the front and also the back, to 'keep your honour bright!'

MargaretX Mon 09-Jan-17 19:08:21

Yes I was a guide until they suggested I leave, as I spent most of the evening watching the Scouts who met in the adjoining room. That was when I was already a patrol leader but in the beginning I really loved it. I got a gymnasts badge which was supervised from school and then I had to make my own bed for a week. I can still do hospital corners but of course with fitted sheets its a skill gone to waste.
I remember the fire lighting with 2 matches on a damp evening in the woods. Somehow we all passed.
Those were innocent days. How lucky we were!

tiggypiro Mon 09-Jan-17 18:49:52

Ging gang goolie, goolie, goolie, goolie
What shall ging gang goo?
Ging gang goo

etc and apologies if my spelling is incorrect.

Lighting fires and cooking over them completely put me off smoking cigarettes because I was so naive that I thought all smoke was the same and just couldn't understand why I would want to breathe it in.
Loved the Guides especially Kingfisher patrol and camping. The tents we used were ex army canvas bell tents and we had to take our own groundsheets. We once had to dig a trench through the tent to let the water out after a heavy storm. Collecting wood, carrying water and digging latrines - I can't imagine them having to do that now.
Happy days!

Jalima Mon 09-Jan-17 17:38:07

Yes, I was a Brownie (a sixer) then a Guide too but left when I was about 14 as the group folded.

I remember when DD did the firelighting - then they had to cook sausages on the fire (in a pan) to get a badge.

baubles Mon 09-Jan-17 17:29:34

Yep I was a Brownie and flew up to Guides. Can't for the life of me remember anything about fire starting though smile.

mcem Mon 09-Jan-17 17:27:16

I was too. I think the fire-lighting test was part of the camping badge and not a stand-alone badge. We had to light the fire and boil half a pint of water in 20 minutes!

nanaK54 Mon 09-Jan-17 17:21:54

Oh yes I was a guide!

Re fire lighting have you come across 'fire logs' (we chop them in half because we are tight/careful)

merlotgran Mon 09-Jan-17 17:18:05

I was a Brownie but the GG did not appeal so I joined the Red Cross cadets instead.

whitewave Mon 09-Jan-17 17:11:30

There are loads of us on GN tricia I went on to sea something - can't remember what they were called. Used to go rowing in Shoreham.