Guides/Scouts/Brownies share your stories

[fireheart]

The post I did in the "Book Donations" thread reminded me of my time in Brownies/Girl Guides. This was late 90's by the way.

Down in Aussieland, we have both Guides and Scouts: Guides are girls-only, Scouts are mixed-gender. I was a Guide for a few years, my sister did Guides for about a year or so, then joined the Scouts (and is still with the Scouts as a Rover (18+) and also leads a Joey (5-7) mob).

I remember SO much with Brownies/Girl Guides when I was a kid. The hall is still standing today. My dad even made a dance floor for them which I believe is still there and can be hired out for various events.

When I was there, the different "groups" were named after various Australian "fairies". They were:

-Junjarins
-Moora Mooras
-Woorails
-Tintookies
-Tookonies
-Lalagullis
-Mullokas.

We only ever had the first three on that list due to numbers. Despite the fact you were only meant to have six in a group, we had up to around 7-8 at one time in some cases. You had a "sixer" (the leader) and a seconder (your backup). I ended up having the dubious honour of becoming a "sixer" at one point and my sister wound up as seconder, even when we swapped over from the Australian fairies to the animal theme.

Despite the fact that according to the "official" handbook, the uniform was meant to be brown and yellow, they didn't mind if we wore blue as well...I think at the time they were starting to phase out the "Brownies" and include the "Girl Guides" as one big group from 5-15 (after that was Rangers, now it's the "Olave")

I also remember holding a sponsored silence, my first ever sleepover at the guide hall and the little routine we did at the end of the night where we had to dance around a toadstool while singing this little tune (I can't remember what we did during the animal theme) and then had to stand in a circle holding hands and doing something else, can't quite remember what.

Then there was the camp. One of the more memorable highlights was this bridge at the campsite which consisted of a bundle of "trapezes" that swung back and forth set fairly close together (on the playground). We all kept pretending that we were Tweety.


Does anyone else remember being a Guide/Scout/Brownie? If so, share your stories!

[bhskittykatt]

I'm technically still a Girl Scout. My troop gave me a lifetime membership as a HS graduation gift!

The current troop is run by my BFF and is about 40 brownies/juniors. When I first joined, it was literally me and like two other people as juniors. When I became a cadet, a few others moved in, and we grew to around a dozen.

We would go to weekend encampments and just hang out and do our own thing (much of which was stringing up other cabins with fishing line...forget TP-ing, fishing line is where it's at!). We eventually started volunteering as dishwashers to get in for free because it made no sense to pay around $100 per girl to go to weekend encampment just to blow off the scheduled activities and dink around.

Somehow, they always knew it was us doing the cabins, too. Even when we did our own cabins, and left others untouched to try and frame them, they knew. At least when we started volunteering our way in, we got to stay in staff housing which had indoor plumbing.

Because our troop was, well, trouble (we even got matching Tshirts that said "Nothing But Trouble), the Council didn't like us for a while. But we eventually won them over because we would throw on a HUGE haunted house/Halloween party each year, do mystery dinners, Princess teas, big events like that (as Cadets/Seniors, you just aren't cute enough to cut it with just cookie sales anymore). We showed that yes, we could act our age when we wanted to. The Council let off our backs after that.

[Aethian]

I us dusky earned my own badges and my "troop" snubbed me because I always had badges they didn't. But hey I went to Girl Scout camps and earned them that way. Once earned so many I had two sashes and every page in my guide book filled.

[XCashier]

But we eventually won them over because we would throw on a HUGE haunted house/Halloween party each year, do mystery dinners, Princess teas, big events like that (as Cadets/Seniors, you just aren't cute enough to cut it with just cookie sales anymore).

Those sound great! Our troop wasn't quite that inventive, but we still had fun. Lots of camping (in tents, not cabins, and we cooked over open fires...I need to relearn that skill one of these days!), hikes, orientation, field trips to the zoo and botanical garden. Great stuff.

I was hoping my son could have a similar experience, so I signed him up to Cub Scouts a couple of years ago. They held meetings in a school gym and...that's it. The other boys ignored him since he was from a different school than they were. They didn't do anything except color, play indoor games and sell popcorn. He was pretty much burned out at the end of the year. Such a shame.

[Kittish]

I was a girl scout for a couple of years. I don't really have any outstanding memories, unless you count the one time I went to camp in the fall/early winter, and the tents were all COVERED inside with spiders. *shudder*

I never was able to get any badges, between the apathetic troop leaders and my own apathetic parents I could never do any of the practical testing part.

[cindybubbles]

We camped in a cabin, and I think we were in a converted and heated trailer or mobile building in the winter. I remember a rule where if we did not use our table manners, we'd have our utensils taken away, and we'd be forced to eat like dogs! My cabin mates took it with stride and a good sense of humor, though!

It was also the first time I slept in a bunk bed, and the sleepover at the chuch hall was the first night I slept without a nightlight. I've slept in the dark since then.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

This takes me back many years. I was a scout as a young girl. At troop camp one year we had a deer walk into our tent

[TawnyMyst]

Still am! Came thru the Girl Guides of Canada as a kid, Brownie, Guide, Pathfinder and Cadet. Now I'm a Pathfinder Guider, but I have been a Sparks Guider, Brownie Guider, Guides Guider and District Guider. Just got my 20 year pin actually. Loved it growing up and now loving it as a leader. We've got a trip to PEI and Nova Scotia planned for 2015 and Europe planned for 2017.

[Teefies2]

I was a Brownie/Girl Scout. But my experience was probably different than most. See, after my Brownie years, my family moved to Libya (yes, that one, the one with Gadaffi). Being a Girl Scout in a desert country is all about survival skills.

In fact, one time when we were camping, we were all sitting around the campfire. My mother was one of the leaders then, and all of a sudden, someone said "Helen! Don't move!!!" It took a few seconds to realize what was happening. Seems a King Cobra had slithered into our campsite - probably attracted by the fire and cooking smells - and slithered within 6 inches of my mother!!!! If you've never seen a King Cobra, they range from 4 to 12 feet long, and this was one of the longer ones. In addition, it's a cobra, their bite is poisonous! My mother didn't move, the snake slithered away from her, and one of the guy chaperones (yeah we had to have them, living in an Arab country) shot it.

That's my scariest story/worst memory of being a Scout!

[fireheart]

I remember for our camp, we had to do this obstacle course that culminated in us touching a giant (fake) toadstool.

On top of that, I do remember making these Christmas decorations from pipe cleaners and beads. We still have both of mine (a candy cane and a wreath).

Finally, we were meant to have a "campfire" one night...in the middle of summer. The actual "campfire" at the Guide Hall was a bunch of cellophane in the middle of the floor designed to simulate a campfire while we sat around singing songs Brown Owl's daughter led us in that. (We never had a Snowy Owl, only a Brown Owl)

As for Scouts, while I'm not a member, my sister is. Down here the "names" are Joeys (5-7), Cubs (8-10), Scouts (11-14), Venturers (15-18), Rovers (18+). She's been a member since she was a Scout.

When she was a Venturer, she did the "Easter Venture" which occurred every year in the bushlands around the state. It was like a "team" hike of sorts. Her group consisted of a bunch of friends from her troop. Among the items they carried for dinner were things like 2 minute noodles. In this case, it was Indomie Mi Goereng. For the uninitiated, you add soy sauce, seasoning oil, seasoning powder, fried onion pieces and CHILI sauce to taste, in 2 minute noodles. A friend of hers had never tried it before and was warned by my sister not to put the entire sachet of chili in as a result. She did, had a mouthful and then jumped up and ran around the campsite squealing

She also went to the Jamboree located in Victoria (Australia) and was happy to meet Evermore, then described these giant trucks that would just lumber around the campsite and spray everything in its path with water . She wound up volunteering for another Jamboree, this time as a Rover with her ex-boyfriend. They described it as "hell" when they become the watchers instead of the watched!

She has also admitted to me that she gets some weird comments from the kids in her Joey Mob when they discover that her name isn't actually Kangaroo (I can't remember what her friend is known as)

[bhskittykatt]

She has also admitted to me that she gets some weird comments from the kids in her Joey Mob when they discover that her name isn't actually Kangaroo (I can't remember what her friend is known as)

This one is actually Cub Scout related (my mother was a den leader).

At the local Cub Scouts day camp several years back, it was held in a nearby park. The leader running the First Aid station went by the camp name of "Batman", and the First Aid tent was thus referred to as the "Bat Cave".

Now for a bit of background, this particular camp location was in the shadow of Blanchard "Mountain" (elev. ~2200 ft), which has well-traveled hiking trails and bat caves near the summit. It is a relatively short but steep hike, especially going up from where the camp was as the caves were on the opposite side of the hill.

So when a Sheriff deputy pulled into camp and asked my mother where [First Aid Lady] was because he needed to discuss something with her, and my mom replied "Oh, she's in the Bat Cave", the deputy could only take one look at the big, looming hill with a look of dread on his face and a heavy sigh. It took a moment for Mom to realize what he was looking at and redirect him to the First Aid "Bat Cave".