Back in time, American style

 

Ah, the 1970's eh? The period some of us remember so well from the things we did and the groups we belong to but while quite a few us remember the uniforms of the local Brownies and Girl Guides - perhaps you had a sister or female cousin who was one most of us never knew the American version, part of what there is Girl Scouts.

This is the american Brownies dress that can be worn with a narrow belt but note just the top right pocket and the button detail on top - no zips or anything like that.

Brownie Uniform over time

 Uniform changes over time, sometimes it reflects wider changes in fashion, sometimes more an attempt to match what various focus groups say youngsters feel more comfortable about being seen in, some times strait from the adults!

Brownie uniforms show this from the Edwardian sailor suit look though various dresses with necker changes throuhgh the controversial Jeff Banks active redesign to today where strangely enough girls felt what had been altered just a decade and bit before looked too boyish!

Will things go full circle in time?

Inspiration between the pages

 Stories about being in movements such as boys and girls brigades, brownies and cubs are not generally just pieces of fiction looking at the lives of those in membership but often are about what membership is about and how your being say a brownie or a cub comes into play in everyday life.

That's not least we're learning what today we call "life skills" apart from having heaps of fun together and the thing about life skills is there will be times you'll need to use them so compilations of stories don't just keep you entertained, they help form that connection and inspire you further on you way through scouting.

Very much of the 1940's and 50's, this how any girl in Brownies would wear her uniform and note she wears a tie  with her enrollment badge which was later changed.

Old school Brownies

Today for once we're paying a brief look at Brown badges and the like before the major program reorganization of the 2000's.

Like Scouts, Girl Guiding had a good number of publications such as annuals but this 1983 example isn't actually an annual, it calls itself a gift book and in some respects is more of a cross between those Ladybird guides to Scouts and Guides with some of the more "stories of what we do with photos" that tend to be in the annuals.

The original text in this edition is copyrighted 1981 although this is a re-print from two years later.

As with Scouts, these publications are no longer with us.

The original badge scheme in Girl Guides was similar to Scouts with awards for meeting certain challenges and here's a selection. 

Legacy Badge Categories consist of Artist, Athlete, Citizen, Cook, First Aid, Girl Scout Way, and Naturalist. Each individual badge book consists of 4-12 pages, and contains all the information needed to earn the badge.

The Imp was one pretty much every brownie had like the Trifoil membership badge and reflects the whole faeries story that's woven into it rather like in Cubs we had the Jungle Book.

This last one was the Highways Badge,

Brownies Dolls

 

I have mentioned scouting related action figures in the past here but there were dolls made for those girls who being 7 1/2 to 10 were in Brownies, the GG equivalent of Cubs which would be used in play.

This Vogue Ginty one is from 1978 showing the then uniform of brown tunic with pockets plus belt and is fully posable.

Coming from a slightly different direction is this vintage soft doll the sort girls I am told  may play with or perhaps tuck into bed which when I've typed this I'll fall into!

The Brownie Annual

It's rare for me to post much about "the other half" of the Scouting Movement for a host of reasons such as having very little to do with in any capacity but as you would expect their are parallels.

Rather like Wolf Cubs/Cubs, until more recent times there were annuals published that any Brownie would expect to get with the bindings being made easier to printed over time.

The start point of any annual is having an eye catching illustration for the front as this isn't an instruction manual and typically a Brownie annual would show brownies in uniform undertaking some task.

The back of this one features the faces of some, a number of which contributed to the contents.

This one is the 1962 edition and as was usual at the time has a formal introduction from the World Chief Guide addressed to the individual Brownie welcoming them to the publication which is official.

Here we have a contents page which is well indexed by makes, things of interest, about Brownie life such as pack holidays and the like.

Because rather like Cubs, you might of joined but not done everything yet, you'd have things about what you may get to do such as a pack holiday complete with pictures which are printed on glossy paper.

Very much with the whole Pixies and Elfs and so on, concept running in Brownies, there's a section with rhymes about them a brownie would no doubt love.

Something I don't think the Girl Guides Association then would of been unaware of is a copy about perhaps belonging to a friend or sister of another girl would act as a shop window to them to join up too, sharing the fun.

Annuals in general seem an endangered species, always out of date at the time of printing, lacking the interactivity some crave today and yet I know the Comic annual is still a popular thing as are tv and movie tie ins.

As children still love physical gifts they can treasure perhaps annuals connected with scouting can comeback.

Brown Owl

The Wise owl does things connected in the broadest sense to Scouting in it.

After all the Leader in charge of a Brownie Guide Pack is called a Brown Owl and she is assisted by other Leaders called Tawny Owl, Snowy Owl, Grey Owl, etc. 

They pass on their knowledge and skills that are a part of the Brownie program to the youngsters as they learn more about and become more able in time to take a full part of Guiding.

Brownie Guides have fun while learning to help others, enjoying the out of doors, playing games, doing crafts and singing.

Story telling too has a history within scouting being a good way of exploring ideas and situations that you may think about because the ability to make good choices "on our feet" is very important.

Scouting for girls

While the focus of this blog is not on Girl Guiding (UK) or the Girls Scouts (US), nontheless they do play an important role within scouting as a movement and here is a vintage picture of a pack of girl guides well before the heavily criticized uniform changes of the 1990's and early 2,000's.

Girl Scouts USA - Cadettes, Seniors, Juniors, Brownies - 1970 again before the push into cargo type shorts or long trousers that keeps a clear separate identity for the female side of the movement.

Although Girl Guiding was clearly seen from the outset as the outlet for girls who wished to be in scouting, being the responsibility of Agnes and then Olive Baden-Powell in 1918 and currently is structured into Rainbows/Rainbow Guides for 5 to 7 year olds, Brownies/Brownie Guides for 7 to 10 year olds, Guides for 10 to 14 year olds and Rangers for 14 to 26 year olds, there is a difference in  the extent to which The Scout Association and BSA have by allowing females to join have undermined the role and purpose of Girl Guiding/ Girl Scouts.

The Scout Association and BSA today feel they need to be seen to be inclusive including gender inclusive whereas The Guiding Association and Girl Scouts feel very strongly that when girls increasingly share spaces at school and in sports there is a need for an all girl space lead by adult females to help raise girls. They also feel it is an attempt to bolster Scouting Association/BSA  membership and participation.

My own view on this are written naturally from a male perspective which is while I would agree sharing resources such as camps and taking part in joint activities makes sense as part of the same movement, I feel something is being lost and not just for girls in this trend to eliminate gender specific spaces.

I feel boys have a need to spend time together learning about and from each other and by doing this through the Scouting programs form powerful bonds that aid their transition in  capable young men in tune with adventure but also able to take care of themselves.

Boys let their guard down more and are generally less likely act up when in their own company supervised by men who know what boyhood is about cos they actually had one. Just the presence of a couple of females alters that whole dynamic in any group. 

I also agree with the Guiding Association/Girl Scouts that this clearly is muscling on their territory which was understood by all.

There has and is criticism from time to time that their programs are too timid, lack adventure and maybe seem stuck in a homely feminine environment but the answer to such concerns is for them to consult with the young people involved  and make the programs more rugged while keeping the all girl ethos.

This said the one criticism I would make of modern guiding is a preoccupation with 'girl power' and trying too hard to be a trendy campaigning feminist organization which I don't honestly feel most girls really are that into and says more about the current leadership than traditional scouting for girls.