1997 and all that

 

Have a guess what it's doing outside this morning?

Yes, that's right, raining hard and very dull so I raided the shelf and in among the annuals I found one from 1997.

Well most of mine are from the 70's, the period cubbery ought to had been on the horizon through the 1980's which were only marginally different.

1996 was at the tail end of interest in British popular culture, music and the arts plus for some of us at least Euro 1996 footy but things were starting to change a little within scouting as while Scouts and above had mainly gone to long often mushroom coloured trousers, cubs was mainly short trousers still and not co-ed like today.

What did come in was the "activity" trouser a kind of trouser with pockets down the legs rather like combat styled shorts and the old cap was being replaced.

The mainstays of the actual program remained the same - cubs always was a juvenile programe for juveniles - but it was an era where health and safety and being seen to had anticipated and planned for risks was coming in, not that in principal it was bad thing at all.

Plus Beavers had settled in creating a great path for younger children to get stuck in with the scouting family and transfer to cubs.

The move to allow not just the oldest guides to join Venture Scouts  but beavers, cubs and scouts was to come soon with all of its controversies.

Beaver annuals

 

Scouting used to have a good number of annual publications both official and unofficial before they were discontinued in the early 2000's and we have over the years covered a number for Cubs/Wolf Cubs, Scouts and the odd Girl Guiding one.

Beavers was established within the Scout Association in 1986, although the BP-SA had had them for longer for 6 to 8 year olds so had less time in print than many of others.

The cover is bright,cheerful and appealing designed more to appeal to that age group than the more formal look of many cub annuals although it does show things you can do in Beavers and has sections about them inside.

An increasing concern was percieved value as while the internet was less established and E-Books had yet to take off, books had to tackle such calls on a young childs attention as toys and television so stressing the number of pages mattered to persuade adults to buy the Beaver the annual.

Given in the UK the annual remains a popular gift for children, I do feel it's unfortunate that rather than being redesigned for greater appeal, such publications were just dropped.

A few things from Christmas and some thoughts

 Today is the first post Christmas edition on this blog so in with the everyday things of value such as a diary for next year were a couple of what today people would see as "vintage" publications not that in my mind they are more than a few minutes away.

 

The 1980's were an interesting decade although it took a while for things to really change and they show a bit within each.

Around the late 1980's we saw the development of commercial activity centres and holidays such as PGL as incomes for some at least did rise and there was interest in the mass media around Challenges of endurance.

That made its way into scouting as did the increased awareness of the need to assess risks and concerns around safeguarding which still reverberate around anything in young people were being addressed.

We're all for adventure but can do without cavalier make it up as we go along attitudes that can easily lead to dangerous situations developing.

Increasingly more use of specialist centres with instructors crept in.

The early 80's were in lots of ways a run on from the 70's with the only thing that would of appealed to a cub then was the advent of affordable personal computing from either having access to a parents TRS 80 to perhaps getting a Sinclair ZX81 which at the time was the cheapest personal computer going to the BBC Micros that were for a long time the standard in UK education.

This was reflected in scouting by Information Technology awards and badges scouting offered around this time.

Cubs uniform didn't change much before the changes around 2000's that saw the old style clothe cap go for a branded baseball cap and more widespread long trouser wearing.

As we got into the second decade of this century, the annual stopped presumably for financial reasons although many children's publications especially at under elevens in the UK still have annuals so children are used to and expect them from parents and grand parents.

The Wolf Cub

Another one I ordered came from 1957, this would of been around the time my Father would of been in the Boy Scouts as he was a Wolf Cub a few years before.

One thing that is quite telling is the level of expectation when it came to your abilities being of the age to of been a Wolf Cub are quite high from the accounts of what people did, suggested activities, stories about being a scout and also the language used.

It has rigour written right through it.

Here are a few sample pages of which perhaps the most important is the illustrated story of Peter working on getting his badges, taking on fresh challenges and moving forward which is part of growing as a boy is all about. 

There is a good entry which I'll type out in full.

GOOD HUNTING TO ALL WOLF CUBS

THERE are two kinds of people in the world.
One is the kind that goes through life never getting any better or any worse.  Never trying anything new or trying to conquer hard things or learning something they didn't know before.
The other kind of people are those who spend every minute in learning something new; trying to do something they have never done before.
Most Cubs belong to this kind of people,.
They are always trying to get on.   When a Cub has gained his First Star he sets to work to learn the tests for his Second Star.  Then he tries for badges, so that he learns something about gardening and first aid and swimming, and badges which make him useful about the house.
Of course it is hard work, but a Cub likes that.  He lives up to the Cub motto-DO YOUR BEST.  A Cub is always doing his best in any job he takes up.
So Good Hunting to you-and jolly good Cubbing on the Jungle Trail 

Getting through this with my disabilities was a challenge, a very good example of a hard thing I rose to the challenge of wet, uneven and very muddy but I did it.
I have what it makes to be a good Cub and a true Scout.

The road ahead inspired from the past

After Friday's 500th edition, we'll get what this is about, and why currently we are on a three posts a week cycle which is issues around availability of good vintage scouting images not least Tumblr removing many blogs that collected them make doing what i used to do difficult.

As well I decided to try to up the user generated content on here so this blog really would stand out for being more than just a collection of  old scouting pictures but be about Scouting and my own explorations and activities.

Exploring can take you to odd things that survive like this Seveneenth Century cottage, actually three farmers cottages knocked into one nearby with it's thatched roof and tastefully restored some years back with a lovely big garden.

Not being able to at the time to the larger planned gardens due to the coronavirus restrictions was a drag but having that on my doorstep to spend time around enjoying the view and seeing the birds and insects was just lovely.

I also got during lockdown a few original Wolf Cub annuals of which this is one that cover the sorts of activities Wolf Cubs did as well as having fascinating information and inspirational stories.

I'm not of what you might call a collectors mentality, keeping them under lock and key but I have them for what any boy then was grateful to have them for, as things that inspire me to "Do Your Best" and grow as that person.