A little old in their time?

 We enter Autumn which brings with it a load of events that we mark and to which pack leaders no doubt will be working on plans but one thing that always intrigued me was why as I recall from the sidelines where there was a number of different Cub annuals.

Part of the reason I can say that I was around during that era so I knew what my mates had, what they did - cubs on a Wednesday - and what appealed to them.

1971 is some fifty three years ago, the world of cubbery had changed in 1967 when the Wolf Cubs became Cub Scouts (and now just Cubs), uniforms got changes and awards got altered a bit.

Year had began with Clive Dunn singing Grandad and ended with Slade, T Rex and David Bowie and so in broad cultural terms we'd moved very much into the more sophesticated seventies.

What you might think does that have to do with Cub Scouts you might ask and the answer I would say can be seen between the covers of that book published in 1970, the 1971 Sixer Annual.

Re-reading this over the last few weeks, while the cover has three cub scouts looking as we all did the minute you opened it up, while looking to be a premium annual, this had no colour illustrations or pictures.

The language was rather stilted and old-fashioned even by 1971 standards, and indeed looking at early 60's versions seemed to be very much of the same ilk.

It certainly talks about exploring, identifying mammals, wild flowers and adventures which is great but it doesn't grip you in much the way the shorter Cub Annuals with their friendly text with colour did, leaving you wanting to try it out.

Had their been a "retro" market for Cubs stuff in 1971, in some respects this was more it even if the quality of the binding and the graphic layout on front cover is classy.

It doesn't surprise me that in time this annual left us because It certainly wouldn't of held the attention of myself and my mates as seven or eight year olds back then.

Rewind to 1962

 Something that did land my way recently was this used but decent reading copy of the 1962 Sixer Annual aimed at Wolf Cubs which like most annuals was actual published and therefore prepared in 1961.

Like many publications back then the binding was far more robust than on most modern publications which means even much loved copied usually just need handling with the care you were shown rather than being handled with kid gloves.

As was normal back then the faces of contributing wolf cubs were featured on the back.

The Frontispiece is beautiful with illustrations based upon the lives and activities of cubs from Grand Howl to Bob a Job week

The contents page which has stories about Wolf Cubs, camps, things you can do and the life of our founder B-P to inspire you along your way plus games and crosswords.

What more could you ask for?

I found it a greatly enjoyable read as I recover from this virus that has been affecting me since the end of last year, keeping my motivation to try and be the best I can even in this high.