Brownies uniform over the years

 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?

St George and Easter redux

Two things this week on the blog thanks to scheduling and fixed dates one being that Last Wednesday was St. Georges Day, our patron saint here in England.

As the Eternal Brownie, I marked it too here as did thousands of brownies and guides, many march with flags, even more read about and create things about St Georges life passing on that knowledge about a part of our identity.

No, he wasn't caught on the hop this year just that Easter was a week later when we all got together after arriving on Friday having gotten a taxi and caught the train down so I would be less rushed which also had the benefit of enjoying a fish and part battered chip meal was people talked.

Saturday was the start of events proper and I was up just after six, possibly the earliest cos I go by British Cat Time - when you can see things you get moving - so after the last person arrived we started with an Easter Egg Hunt which the first step was to assemble your basket and having done that I found seven of them hidden all over the place.

We then retired for home made burgers with onion that we ate outside that were most scrumptious .

We then had to throw a bean bag at the rabbit to score points which wasn't my strong point  before the egg and spoon race which you could I was more slow and steady before the outdoor darts which I wasn't too bad at  

Then each time had to retrieve a deck using a pole with chain but it soon transpired the chain was too long and heavy although one person did seem to develop a knack for it.

Then we had Tin Can Alley where one team member managed get a ball through the centre of the tins leaving those around the edges in a perfect inverted V shape and I knocked most of them off which was something!

We were treated to small creme eggs and a gingerbread bunny.

We then enjoyed an enjoyable bring a long a few things buffet  which I had B-B que chicken, pork pie salad and sausage roll before playing Easter bingo  and Family Favourites.

After much talk we got to sleep - for me opposite the fire - just before midnight and I was up for oatcakes and bacon before we went to the local pub for a meal which for me was a turkey roast and sticky toffee treacle pudding.

After that we made our ways home with Debbie kindly providing three of us a lift to the station.

Thanks to Jennifer for organizing the party and everyone contributing to a highly enjoyable event.
 

Easter for Brownies

Brownie units and their leaders can incorporate Easter themes and activities into their programs, often by completing an Easter-themed badge or challenge. Activities can include crafts like decorating animal jars or creating Easter egg treasure hunts. Brownie badges may also include information about the Christian holiday of Easter and its symbols. 

Here's a more detailed look at how Brownies and Guides might celebrate Easter:

Badge and Challenges:

Easter Badge:

Girlguiding offers an Easter holiday woven badge, which Brownies can earn by learning about Easter traditions and symbols. 

Easter Challenge Badge:

Some local Girlguiding groups create specific challenge badges for Easter, like the "Eggstraordinary Easter Challenge Badge from Girlguiding Hertfordshire". 

Take Action Make a Change:

Some challenge badges can be linked to the "Take Action Make a Change" program, allowing Brownies to work on a project with a specific Easter theme. 

Activities:

Crafts:

Brownies can make Easter-themed crafts, such as tissue paper animal jars to hold treats. 

Treasure Hunts:

Plan Easter egg treasure hunts, where clues lead to chocolate eggs or other rewards, or even challenges to complete. 

Egg Decorating:

Brownies can decorate eggs using various methods, like blowing out the egg and then painting it. 

Learning about Easter:

The Easter badge and challenge badges provide opportunities to learn about the Christian holiday of Easter, including its symbols like eggs, candles, and lilies. 

More scouting!

 

Although emblems do change and so does the World Map  thanks to geo-politics, this nice set does go to show the extent that girls around the world have thie own opportunities though dedicated organizations in Scouting be it GirlGuiding or as in the United States of America, Girl Scouts.

Although the relationship with Scouts in some parts of the world remains tetchy with the latter departing from the views of Baden Powell who favoured having seperate bodies for boys and girls with collaberation it is good to know GirlGuiding for Girls remains popular.

Why shouldn't girls have thier on spaces and programs?

Communication isn't always clear especially when relaying information which scouts can expect to be involved in some sometimes it makes sense to spell out phonetically things and just sounding a letter isn't clear like M and N getting mixed up.

Thankfully there is an international standard where every letter is spelt out using names and here it is which also has a pennant.

Learning it is very useful and actually I do know it off by heart!

Remembrance

 Although this is the blog of  a sissy, that gurl is much much wider one looking at the things that mattered to me such as Scouting, and being a Little too, the way I carry forward "The Eternal Brownie" in me.

Remembrance can mean different things to different people. The in Brownies the  activities provided are a great way to explore what it means to your unit – from the poppy fields of the first world war, to stories of women working in the resistance during the second world war. Think too about those who protect and support us today, from police officers to supermarket workers.

By doing this you learn and understand what the sacrifice many not least girls and women made for our today, our freedom.

Here today's Brownies take part in the remembrance day service and parade, laying their wreath which having done that myself is a poignant act and also a great honour.

October Brownies edition

 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.

 

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.

1986 and the gurl

 

Having made a donation to a site I belong to I thought we might rewind to the past a bit this week as much as it has a bit of a hold on me.

1986 was in some ways rather like 1980 in some ways with me in that for that year I had a diary and annuals just like I did before and I read comics and mainly watched children's tv because Tammy remained very much a child.

A child who loved things like Brownies and Guides.

I was keen on nature, enjoying taking walks together with hikes, learning about how things grew and conservation such as the plight of otters and water voles.

It also was the year of the 1986 National Garden Festival which was about bring former industrial sites back into use in Etruria, Stoke on Trent, which I visited.

1986 was important for it was the year I really started to get to grips with past memories as some of those experiences had left me traumatized, not least those around trying to be your true sissy self in an era of casual queer bashing.

Listening to a radio show that played music from one week per year effectively turned and brought out a page at a time those memories as I reframed them and learned to heal.

I did like folk music although you might say I was born with two left feet when it came to dancing but I loved the pretty clothes and I started to dress more gurly that year as part of that healing process, learning to be more comfortable in my own skin.

I always like puzzles, they were a popular part of annuals which on rainy damp days such as today really helped as at least when you couldn't get out to play there were things you could do to keep busy and happy.

The Dandy always was a favourite and this is a copy from April 19th  that year with Desperate Dan on the front cover,

To return to the beginning, here's  Dandy annual for that year which I had together with the Brownies annual.

The Integrated Brownie Pt. 2

After last weeks post we return to an element of being an adult little gurl which is your interests and for me it's always been scouting and one difficulty in assembling a uniform is that quite simply unless you are looking at replica uniforms as worn from the 1950's to the 1990's and the Jeff Banks inspired uniform reboot coming in simply you won't fit in the official one today.

This you really need to reimagine a modern take one what a Brownie Uniform can be using tried and tested uniform colours.

The current uniform is very Hoodie Sweatshirt heavy, brown with yellow branding but you can take a leaf from current co-ed cubs and have a green jersey/sweatshirt you can badge up, very up to you if you want to attempt a brownie logo on the bottom like the Cubs one does.

Traditionally with the modern brownie uniform you have a sash you apply your badges to but you might as well take a leap out the co-ed cubs and place them on the Jumper

A bigger problem is the yellow polo shirt in brownies only goes up to 36 inch and is short in body with the Brownie Branding arranged in a semi circle on it but I use a regular schoolwear polo shirt that you can get in adult sizing that fulfils the function.

I don't see any mileage in adding a separate gold or yellow t shirt.

That teamed with the brown skirt does make for a suitable uniform, modern but using traditional colours and easy to put together, sufficiently feminine for gurls like us.

That look isn't far remove from the early 1990's yellow top and brown cullottes option as shown in the 1991 Brownies Handbook that I have just we're introducing a brown skirt instead.

You could change the colours to blue for a similar take on Guides.

The Integrated Brownie

The genius of this post is a long as this blog goes which is to say when you are a sissy gurl who was brought up on paper at least as a boy many of your social connections  and memories are influenced by the gender divide and this was true of Scouting.

It wasn't that contact with with "the enemy" wasn't always stopped and sometimes even sanctioned as for instance I might of been directed to sit with and even work together with a girl just most activities were self contained so you may as well of come from two different lands.

The thing was sometimes actual integration of gender divided units did happen such as joint camps where Cubs and Brownies while in separate units did take part in shared activities even if you may of had specific time toward your badgework.

The Americans for reasons best kept to themselves styled themselves as Girl Scouts even if they had a Brownies section and these two handbooks form a part of that outlining the program to transition to the next level and around understanding the world around you and all within it.

Sometimes people try to say Scouts has a different and better feel to it than Girl Guiding but both contain elements of each other and while scouts has a more rugged image, Girl Guiding isn't all uber gentile or a soft option.

Tammy could of easily belong in that first picture in more enlightened times as the first person in the second row from the front dressed then in hur Brown Tunic in with the girls as a gurl or today in a simple brown pleated skirt, presenting femininely.

Yes you may of needed separate space for changing for reasons of modesty but that could be easily provided but for the Tammy's of this world it would of been a sensible solution, placed and under the rules of feminine section but not cut off from the boys finding a balanced approach as a gurl, able to do more girly things but join in kickabouts just like Tomboys.

Tammy is a modern Brownie as  Gurl.

Brownie scouting Autumn 2023 style

Some years I have put out a post around scouting at this time of year simply because the sights and smells of Autumn and the activities tie in so much to my experiences to the point it brings it all back in all the complications being me involves.

At one level the basic complication is just which section of the movement my little side belongs and today while girls can join scouts which has now totally ceased to be a boys thing, girl guiding is still for girls although they do accept those who medically might be boys but seeing themselves as girls are living as girls.

Given I don't identify as a girl any more than a boy that leaves me and those like me out in the cold.

Fortunately in the new-old world as a age dysphoric sissy, I can side step much of that and follow the basic rules and principals of guiding which are not so dissimilar to cub so for what would be more den or ceremonial purposes go with a wither wearing a brown skirt or adopt a suitably sized traditional brownie tunic but wear grey short trousers when hiking.

What Brownies is about is set out well in this illustration from a 1980's Brownie guide book you'd have when you joined

You may not see much emphasis on it today but Brownies did deal with the issue of looking after you nails, so they are short, attractive but not done in way that has as many ridges from bites than mountains!

As a sissy nail care does matter and doesn't it make sense to talk about it anyway?

As in Cubs, you EARN badges but where you put them differs and you need to sow them on so this handy little guide from the era of the classic brown tunic helps.

Exploring with your very own little canopy above you, looking out for all the mammals, birds and insects around you wasn't that what you loved to and you can today, having adventures.

That's why I've readopted this bit of past as being part of full and now open me.

The feminine Brownie

 The conception of a cub me is a recurring thing that cannot in the everyday sense cannot be restored for a whole host of reasons not least the notion of a Adult Cub role doesn't exist and for things around safeguarding you'd never be in with actual children, the very limited leeway in the early days being removed many years ago.

It doesn't mean you cannot do brownie or cub like things such as tasks and projects that would of been linked to an award, it's more you're on your own.

There is no reason you cannot make a similar uniform so long as you are not impersonating publicly or otherwise causing harm to the movement for when you are doing this, even perhaps setting down a hour or so for a session.

Not being "official" you are not hide bound to current uniform trends or scriptures which is just as well for feminine gurls who like to hang on to such parts of their lives in such a way and in that time somethings have altered such as Scout Groups going totally co-ed.

You might emulate the cubs you were in from the era of grey shorts and they do have something going for them such as pockets.

Speaking personally I've transitioned to Brownies as I feel strongly aligned to a more girlish take on scouting.

To aid that transition I have been presented with a Brownie dolly from 1978 so wearing the uniform I recall back then seeing to care for and bond with.

If that is you then you might as I have create an alternative more feminine brownie uniform by adding a simple brown pleated skirt with a more rounded cut popular in junior schools of modest length that you may of preferred.

The choice of Brown is a nod to Brownies, the section created for girls only and remaining so, which makes it a scouting colour with it being the girl equivalent of cubs.

For me this just feels better.

You could keep the traditional boys grey socks with green tabbed garters which would work or go for white girls socks that these days thanks to lycra do stay up well

Brownie uniform has changed radically since the early nineteen nineties when the brown tunic and belt got replaced and the uniform been through several changes since but for me that created feminine brownie uniform borrowing some inspiration from brownies of that earlier era just works.

Tammy is a Eternal Brownie now. Good Gurl!

Brownie scouting autumn 2021 style with Remembrance

This week we return with the on and off annual series of posts connected between scouting and what that means to me.

In both cubs and brownies you can earn you photography badge which apart from feeling great does teach you some useful tips in taking great pictures.

The preferred way to hold a camera, providing it has a viewfinder for the most stability and hence sharpish images involves cradling it against your face, using a camera reliant totally on the screen means tucking your elbows well in while holding it straight while hoping for the best!

I was out exploring the woods which is more challenging with the light but with the colours of the Fall around well worth it using a spot of fill in flash as needed.

The majesty of trees in the fall against brilliant sunshine is a great sight to behold as as here a few leaves have utterly fallen.

Meanwhile near the woods that golden autumnal sun illuminates these leaves well as you feel invigorated for your exploration.

This coming week is always a bit special cos that's when my thoughts go back to those who served this country and those who got caught up in the conflicts as warfare has moved beyond the battlefields since WW1.

The Eleventh of November was Armistice Day, the very day, month and hour we mark the end of that conflict and the Sunday after does happen to be Remembrance Sunday where events will be held across the UK not least at Whitehall, London.

It is important to think about what happened to all those who did serve, those who died and those who returned some with physical and mental scars serving our country.

Lots of people were involved during WW1 and 2 people who kept things running while the men went to war, boys and girls in scouting who helped with message relaying or doing countless other things to help.

Beyond reflecting, there are other ways to explore what it means and to pay tribute as this Scouts and Girlguides from Bridgnorth, Shropshire did with art  apart from much excellent material being made available by the Scouting movement to explain to children and young people what it was like and understand how war affected children like them at that time.

Like many I'll be paying my respects too.

Investment

Covid or not, it is time to make those first footways along the path I have joined  and we start getting our Brownies badge.

That can be fastened to our tunic.

We got the pack we need to work through, learning about the history of Brownies, the role of the imps, the place the Toadstool plays in meeting and our promise which is a solemn thing we don't just learn parrot fashion but learn in our understanding of what it means in our everyday lives.

This is the modern version, inclusive of other faiths directly although back when I was officially younger we talked more of God.

Those values are really what I need and in time I would be able to show my abilities by gaining badges.

Transition to Brownies

 Just about the oldest conundrum in this life has been just where in the world of scouting was for an adult little gurl who in hur childhood longed membership and the chance to participate in that life to the full.

Did they join scouts or girl guiding feeling neither a boy but having no great desire to become later on a fully fledged female.

Would they of become a cub or a brownie when this whole topic raised itself in the early 1970' s and given how you remained very much that child would you of become a forever cub of brownie living life to and following the path back then?

Really this was rather more like it.

In 2021 Tammy is to begin a process of transferring from hur cub past to moving fully into becoming a brownie starting with taking the rule and the law within girl guides understanding as a gurl who is feminine she aligns with girls,learning to follow their ways, taking orders from girls and transitioning her uniform.

Tammy can grow too.

Tammy has become a Brownie because she is a Gurl.

Good Gurl!