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.
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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.
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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.
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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Annuals in general seem an endangered species, always out of date at the time of printing, lacking the interactivity some crave today and yet I know the Comic annual is still a popular thing as are tv and movie tie ins.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.
This need for spanking is almost as old as the whole issue of what my sex and gender identity is as while the confusion crept in in my teens traditional approaches stopped to discipling me just stopped without really being replaced.
My ability to read clues concerning how I am being seen is bad and just talking stuff out or ages utterly muddles me up.
The last mention of anything at all to do with my attitudes and behaviour was in a brief note from 1980 where it was agreed I could be spanked which didn't go into much detail from when I was officially in my mid teens simply because that brief conversation stood out as nothing much was ever discussed or really acted on around that time.
As time passed in the great not really planned way it does, much of stuff around personal conduct and rules short of say burning the house down was not really discussed so much as just drifted apart.
This would of been okay if for the fact that I was and do live at home and connected very much with what has in many ways left me very much developmentally an adult-child who while not being totally destructive or in any way abusive, not only lacks some 'life skills' but am disrespectful at times, lacking in self discipline so not doing important stuff sorting out bills and isn't expected because of previous habits and parental attitudes to help in the home that also may help if I was to live more independently. I struggle very much without rules and guidelines being in place.
In many respects I have more in common with the very mid teen of that entry who can get a handful and the odd time in the recent past the only way Mom could stop me tailspinning if we were out was a discrete firm smack on my bottom.
If one was to have imagined a 12 to 14 year old me from back then, then the boy dressed as a girl in this picture would of been it with longish smooth face and slim frame.
I just feel better for say being caned when I mess up compared to any amount of scolding and that so sticking that in with (having to) wear a uniform is great for me.
When I'm in that mode, I wear girls knickers often gym knickers as they feel better.
I am not treated any less strictly as a sissy gurl in a dress.
This weeks featured artist is a Pakistan born Britisher going by the stage name of Rumer ('real' name Sarah Joyce) with her new lp entitled Into Colour released this month that features the much airplayed track Dangerous.
It's usually a dangerous task to define an artist by others, but it's fair to say her style is very much routed in the singer songwriter mode and has many things in common with the late Karen Carpenter, which as seasoned blog readers know was the stuff very much on my stereo back in the 70's when I was a child (one can hardly say growing up with a straight face!).
Much to some peoples surprise in 2012 she released this album, Boy's Don't Cry which was a covers album drawing from the 70's although the lead off single P.F.Stone actually goes back to the 60's.
Initially some folk issued groans thinking she was jumping on the lucrative covers bandwagon but she makes every single song on it sound as if it was her own.
This was the album that started off her solo career, 2010's Seasons Of My Soul which as belatedly issued in the States the following year featuring the singles Slow and Aretha which were followed by an EP recorded with Burt Bacharach on download and very limited 7" vinyl.
She performed A House is not a Home, a Burt Bacharach and Hal Davis song at the White House May 9th 2012 event honouring Burt.
Rumer's lp's feature different cover art from the corresponding cd and digital download editions usually designed by her and it is in that form my collection of her recordings exists and is enjoyed.
I have made 'vintage' minidisc editions of these albums for posterity with the first two combined to a single 'extended play' disc.
