#FlashbackFriday: Brownies and Guides

There is a real treasure trove of photographs of me as a child that I've found on my mum's computer. Looking back its hard to imagine that I was ever that age but amazing how much I looked like my daughter.


Back in the 1970s things were more traditional than they are today so as a girl I joined  Brownies. I have to say that modern uniforms are a vast improvement on what we wore then:

My daughter very kindly said I looked like a coconut! I must have just taken my promise for the photo as I didn't have all the badges on my arm that I collected at the 3 Brownie packs I was in. I can remember cooking macaroni cheese for my cooking badge. Lots and lots of fun at indoor camps and I'm sure the skills I learned then have been useful throughout my life.

Then it was onwards and I joined the Girl Guides:

That looks like a Remembrance Day photo as I'm wearing a poppy. We were made of tougher stuff then as we weren't allowed to wear a coat over the uniform even in November! Another four years of fun with proper camping and plenty of badges earned.

I must have enjoyed it as I then carried on into Ranger Guides which was a combined unit with the Venture Scouts. Lots more freedom at this level and we did crazy things like the Tour de Trigs were we attempted to walk 50 miles in 24 hours (tried twice and failed both times!). There were plenty of community projects such as painting the milestones around Beaconsfield too. 

My Guiding career ended with a stint as a Young Leader to my old Brownie pack. Good fun being a Snowy Owl but I never carried on after I went to university. My daughter decided to be a Beaver and not a Rainbow and she is now about to take her promise as a Cub. I am glad that she has taken part in a uniformed organisation and hope she has as much fun as I did and learns some useful skills along the way. 

Birthday Retrospective

On Thursday this week it's my birthday and just in time for this my parents discovered a whole load of old photographs on my mum's computer which were scanned in from slides! So I can give you a little trip mostly through the 70s but a little bit of the 80s too:

Clockwise from top left:

• With my big brother and my cousin in the late 1970s
• Pushing my second cousin in I think the early 1980s
• Dressed for my school's Scottish Country Dancing team about 1978
• On my uncle's knee with my brother at my Granny's house 
• Celebrating my mum's Open University degree about 1979
• All of us in Clothkits on the beach in the mid 1970s
• With my teddy Sebastian in about 1977
• Dressing up with my cousin and brother in Huddersfield in the early 1970s

Some interesting hair styles and changes of fashion during that decade! I still have nice long legs just a shame they aren't as slim...

Flashback Friday 1973

You know it's amazing what turns up when you decided to go tidy up the garden shed! When I moved into my house just over a year ago there was a wooden box with what looked like nothing in particular in it so it got shoved out of the way in the shed. Today having taken my bicycle out for a long over due overhaul I had the space to shift things around. 

I was surprised to find several photos from about 1973 in the box (I daren't post the one of my mum complete with trendy perm and Clothkits top!). They must have been taken when my mum was assisting at the Pre-School Playgroups Association in Netherton outside Huddersfield. I am guessing on the date as I look somewhere around the 2 1/2 year old mark:

 

You have to just love the massive collar and the corduroy flowery dress! Funny how my daughter's  hair does a similar flick if we leave it too long between cuts. I look very solemn in the shot I must have been told to sit still for the photographer!

What old photographs have you got lurking in strange places that you are to share?