Things fit together

 

You often have interests that aren't exclusive to being a scout but maybe that you'll encounter others that share them along your path as that scout like playing games such as Chess, perhaps vintage , often steam railways or as with this scout vintage cars.

All three were things with me and do have the potential do build on skills you'll find useful as a scout such as thinking, developing stratagies, having a role within team, learning about how things work, doing day to day maintance.

It could easily of been me aged ten taking an interest in that car.

The Cub Scout

It should be getting cooler again in a day or so as I was out a couple of days back seeing butterflies and small birds about but this week we've floated thousands of miles Westwards.

I don't generally post much about American scouts not least cos I'm not American and in so far as keeping up traditions go, I'd sooner we'd keep our own up like Grand Howl in all its glory but this was the Boy Scouts of America summer uniform of the 1980's which with the odd change stayed in place to the early 2000's.

Smart, practical and more in tune with B-P's ideas than some of the stuff we've had of late, it doesn't aim to "blend in" with everyday boys leisure wear, it identifies you as that Cub Scout with even the socks being distinctive.

Equally I don't post anything around American badges although they follow the basic concept of the badge and award system we know cos they reflect U.S. cultural norms which you'd understand and like here you have to earn them which is a great idea.

There are times where I feel a slightly more modern and inclusive version of the 70's and 80's cubs uniform here backed up by a "stay smart" campaign would be a good thing.

Summer Camps of the 80's

 

Summer Camp as it was in the 1980's with uniforms very much worn with pride this time at Auchengillan, Scotland in 1981, Tent well secured and nobody has mentioned that summer visitor, McMidge that likes your legs and arms!

2,000th post

When I started writing this piece temperatures had started to climb so we'll be keeping cool, drinking much and with the fans running but there is something really special about today that we're marking.

The blog started out of a tumblr during the period of great tumblr purges of 2018-20 when I discovered that I was increasing blogging around scouting and related topics and felt that really it needed a focus so a tumblr was launched with a blog elsewhere that would have more extended posts on as with tumblr you tend to eith make original posts or you reblog perhaps with a extra bit.

That went in suspicious circumstances in 2020 but that did leave a legacy issue of posts whose images were "hyperlinked" that either went or for various reasons blocked.

It was never just a blog about past scouting or heaven's above just uniforms although past connections to Scouts, knowing those who were in GirlGuiding too were a part of but about how we take that on be that formal involvement fundraising, helping your local group or perhaps doing more of those activities seeing yourself as that eternal scout.

We also look at interests such as hiking, camping, visiting places and places that I remember in that context as a young boy and what they mean to me, the things I learned.

Obviously things in my lifetime have changed, the rebranding of and creation of new scouts programs open to girls and boys, the changes in the programs and perodic changes in Guide uniforms which you, like me may have opinions on but nonetheless we must focus on what their achievements and the amount of effort they put in have done for them.

Scouting in its differing forms is above a program, a way of life that helps you be the best you learning things that will help you throughout your life it's the adventure of life we joined.

What I learned picking up from where things were parked have helped me immeasurably in recent years deal with many challenging situations. Being the eternal cub is good for me.

Here's to the next set of posts.

Money Skills

In scouts we don't just physical things but do exploring things connected with so-called life skills - what you need to get by in life - and this does include understanding and managing money.

There has been some changes to how and what we're teaching.

 The Money Skills Activity Badge will help build young people’s confidence and understanding of money through creative, fun and hands- on activities. There are 16 fantastic challenges for Scouts and 10 exciting ones for Explorers – each with lots of brand-new, hands-on activies.

These have devised and tested by scouts, volunterers and leaders to ensure children and young people get that as the modern world often amplifies a disconnect between buying and saving for things and doing it when often parents pay for everything directly in the way in the past you did it yourself with cash.

Inspiration

 

If one ever really needed a simple summary of just what scouting does for YOU then this isn't a bad starting point and shows the difference it can make when you start that journey.

Scouts on the ward!

 

Imagine you were unwell, quite likely in hospital as a child or young person for a good period of time for operations ans rehabilitation.

You're away from Mum, dad and your family as much as they try to visit, your school friends are away as much as school may send on some work to help you keep on track for when you're able to resume school.

What might happen IF Scouts were running in their with an offering of arts, crafts perhaps explaining what you COULD do working towards a badge or award?

Do you think it might not just raise your spirits but actually aid your recovery, feeling more hopeful for the future?

You bet!

And it happens that a good number of Hospitals have scout units operating doing just that even if sometimes you might need to explain to some the difference you can make and how that has benefits to what a hospital is about.

VE Week

 

Pix credits: Routers Int.

Can't let this week end without something that really matters.

Scouts at Buckingham Palace, London  celebrating and helping out on V.E, Day where we marked the 80th Anniversary of the end of the War in Europe and for some of us we reflected and paid respect to all those in Scouting who gave so much helping out in so many ways back then, making a  huge difference.

Identification

Spring is well and truly with us with no need to have the gas fire on and indeed for the last couple of days I didn't need a coat on either.

Given in spring things do magically reappear, here is a handy species reminder chart to identify clearly all those flowers we are now seeing.

I've always been fascinated by Catkins that emerge this time of year and I am seeing the small birds about too.

How to make a Sling

Having sustained an injured arm a time or two out of doors I felt looking at useful piece of knowledge makes sense not least as it has been a bit windy to be out this weekend.

The essential thing to do is to support it until you are able to get it properly checked out so a sling comes into its own and our kneckerchief's are designed just for the job!

While often just leaving it strapped up is sufficient, the point around getting it checked out is seeing if the fracture needs to be set in plaster.

How to pick a good Camping Spot.

 While its very much blowing a storm outside, for when it's safer, here's what you need to consider in picking your camping site all of which really does make sense.

Back to the 90's

Today we'll continue a little with a theme.

The 1990's, for some a lost decade from a scouting point of view as they lost contact with uni and work, for others in that uber-cool era of Cool Britannia, boy bands, brit pop and gaming it may of felt really something out of the past and yet despite a drop in membership scouting did continue with many gainig awards and moving up.

The annual was still very much a thing, a more jazzed up to hold your attention but with similar content to past editions cos cubs (and for that matter Brownies) is a children's thing and deep down they're the same  whatever decade we're in.

As a cub you still did the same sort of things at your weekly meetings and at camp plus you'd of helped out raising funds an awareness by things such as bag packing at the local supermarket such as these cubs in northern England in 1997.

Whatever the doomsters said, scouting did continue on into the next century.

Inclusion at all levels

 

One good thing about Scouts and GirlGuiding is it is actually inclusive - if onely we could get that put over more - but what makes it inclusive?

For me a good start point is the involvement at all levels in delivering scouting people of all backgrounds and disabilities so the organization gains the shared experiences of its own people in what helps us all fit in.

It is about knowing what you as that person can do, things you may ned some help and perhaps some adjustments within the role to enable you and where the hard "not possibles" are.

That requires open, candid communication in a trusting environment so you and all involved locally feel able to talk about what can be done from a start point of looking at what that person has to offer first.

If you have that going on it is better when it comes to ensuring withing your group of children and young people you have a good level of inclusion because those people are so used to it, they will talk to that young person, their parents and any relevant experts at what we need to to ensure so that they can thrive in scouts and guides.

Good communication and sharing knowledge really helps.

That may mean equipment, it is likely to include some alterations of activities or help within undertaking them so the individual does it with support and there is advice around it available in both scouts and guides at national level.

There does, I feel need to more said in the offer of scouts and guides directly to children and parents about this so no one is excluded cos they never knew.

The youngest do join in

 

Beavers on Parade at Ball Hayes, Leek, Staffordshire after no doubt learning all about why we do remember all who served.

Transmitting that message from one generation  to another is pricelesss.

Pix credit: Staffordshire Evening Sentinel.

A extra layer..

 

Tis Autumn and sometimes you need a extra bit of help if you're out camping  so here's Fleur de Lis Scouts Fleece Blanket which is 15 x12 metres in length that you can throw over your sleeping bag, has more than enough space to sow your badges  and easily rolls up for carriage.

It has polyester fleece lining and is made for the Scout Association so mine came from the official Scout Shop.

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.

Plaques

 

While still recovering from being really quite poorly, I came by this interesting plaque that clearly was made to a formular to recognize this boys services in the United States.

I cannot recall seeing something like this within the U.K. where formal award badges and certificates seem more common place.

Does anyone know any different?

Raising awareness

 

Sometimes a comic may only have a short run such as this, Polly Pigtails, published  by  the Parents Magazine Institute in the 1940's looking for "wholesome" comics but do have a legacy.

Polly Pigtails had half comic, half fact and information format but what is interesting from our point of view was it did having features  on Girl Scouts talking about and telling stories around what scouting as practised in the United States had to offer girls and the kinds of roles she may take on.

Getting the message out has always been a bit of a challenge not least when children's publications seem very much islands of total escapism but series of articles such as these or today the Dandytown Scouts cartoons in the Dandy published in the U.K. do help in creatung a postive awareness of what we're about.

Calculating daylight remaining

Like a small number of people I do struggle with "Telling the time" which was a bit of an issue in very timetable settings such as school but there are otherways of working out roughly how much daylight you have and from that having some idea of time of day.

While the source of this illistration isn't one I endorse, it is actually really useful if you are out and let's say your watch fails or worse still gets lost.

Scouting and Civil Order

 

A week and a bit ago, the Scout Association issued a press release looking at what we in Scouts do and how that contrasts to much of the rioting that had taken place in much of England and Northern Ireland.

Here is my thoughts.

In scouts we don't see peoples ethnicities as either limiting in terms of intelligence, capablilities of leading or issues in terms of getting along with other different groups and we have little time for anyone who treats people less favourably because of their background.

Rather than pushing a belief that people are engaged in a struggle against others that they must stay on top of prioritizing their race, religion or social class, we offer hope and belief that by your own efforts and application supported by all along the way you will realize your full potential regards of what your background is while we acknowledge and do all we can to minimize the barriers people may feel would limit it.

By doing this, we elevate everyones potential and believe the well-being of society is served better by this than the destruction,racial hatred and fear we saw on the streets being replaced by a message of hope and the promise of support open to all to be the best selves you can.

When it comes to knowing on what side of the fence we stand against hatred, we know which side we are on and that from our foundation, establishing groups around the World, what our values are.

We reject rioting and racial hatred.