How many of you were Girl Guides? Girl Guides (or Girl Scouts in the US) is a worldwide movement that started in 1909, when girls demanded to be able to take part in the Boy Scout movement. The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts began in 1928, and now has 10 million members in a whopping 145 countries.
How many of these things do you remember from when you were a youngster? And which other Guide-related memory should we have included?
10. The uniform
How much do you remember about the classic Girl Guide uniform that we wore back in the 80s and 90s?
Full of our hard-earned badges and making us look bluer than a Smurf, it’s a look that takes us all the way back to the innocence of our youth!
9. The handbook
Were any of you proud owners of The Guide Handbook that was issued by The Girl Guides Association?
And if you do remember owning a copy, can you remember what kind of things this useful book taught you about being in the Girl Guides?
8. The badges
How many Girl Guide badges did you earn? And who remembers taking up a new ‘hobby’ just so they could earn an extra one?
These days of course the badges have been expanded and updated to cover many more areas than we studied back in the 80s and early 90s.
7. The flag
Did any of you have the massive honour of carrying ‘the flag’ at a local church service?
If you were chosen for the task then you may have felt slightly embarrassed, but at least you could laugh at the poor Brownie who had to carry a flag that was so much smaller than all of the others!
6. The Ladybird book
Who remembers the Girl Guide book that was issued by the classic book publisher Ladybird?
Giving us a handy insight into the organisation, and making it seem so exciting, perhaps more exciting than it actually was, the book took pride of place on our bedroom bookshelf!
5. The camping trip
Some of you will remember the massive excitement of going camping with your Girl Guide chums, whilst others will just remember being incredibly homesick!
Taking us to exciting fields all over the country, the camping trips were scary, fun and often incredibly wet!
4. The Promise Badge
Who remembers their Girl Guide Promise Badge?
Girl Guides were given a metal pin Promise badge after they first made their promise to serve God and the Queen, and we remember it being displayed top and centre on our uniform.
3. The songs
Which songs do you remember singing at your weekly Guide meetings, or whilst you were all sat around a campfire cooking marshmallows?
Does Alice the Camel ring any bells? How about Kum Ba Yah? Surely you remember Oh You’ll Never Get to Heaven?
2. The friendships
Being in the Guides taught us the importance of teamwork and motivation to achieve what we wanted, and also showed us how to be the best person we could be.
It also taught us how to work together as part of a team, and not to be afraid to try new and challenging things. Are you still in contact with any of your Girl Guide chums?
1. The annual
Our final Girl Guide memory is the brilliant Girl Guide annuals that were released every year throughout our childhood.
We all got annuals every Christmas on all sorts of subjects, and the Guides ones were always particularly special. Did you own any?