Guides and Guiding
If you type "Guiding" into any search engine you will come up with a huge number of sites on a variety of topics, mostly either religious or travel-oriented. Hidden in amongst them you will also find sites for what used to be called "Girl Guides" and that is the kind of "Guiding" I am involved in!
I joined the Girl Guides in the late 50's for a brief sojourn as a member of the Nightingale Patrol; none of the other girls went to the same school as I did so I only ever saw them at Guides; I can only remember the Patrol Leader and I don't think I ever knew the company leaders' names - they were just "Captain" and "Skip." As a company, we didn't seem to do much : we never went outside the meeting hall (at least, not while I was a Guide there) except for Church Parade, and we certainly never went to camp or did anything exciting and interesting like that. So, I didn't stay long. If I'd not had a daughter, that would have been that ....
When my daughter became a Brownie, I went along to help and became a Unit Helper; when she reached the age to move on to Guides there was no Guide unit available for her or the other girls who had to leave Brownies because of their age: I'm still trying to recall the point at which I actually said "yes," but however it happened, it went from me volunteering to help at a Guide unit to me, along with my good friend Carol, opening a brand new Guide unit in our home village and running it, and its successor Ranger Unit, for the next ten years! The girls inevitably grew up and moved on, and so did I - I was asked to go and take over another Guide unit when the guider in charge retired, and then, when that unit closed too, to go and "help" at a new Brownie unit. I'm still Snowy Owl there and will stay until they throw me out (at the moment, Girlguiding UK compulsorily retires its guide leaders at 65) as I enjoy it so much - the girls are lovely and a pleasure to work with.
My first Unit, 1st Paull Guides ..... |
..... and my current unit, 3rd Keyingham Brownies |
Since becoming a Guider I have done things which, if my life had taken a different course, I would never have dreamt of in my wildest dreams : here are just some of them! And please remember three things : 1) I am no spring chicken, 2) I didn't learn to swim until I was in my thirties and 3) I am not actually certifiably insane. Yet.
Abseiling : scared me stiff, and I can't say it's my favourite sport, but I did it again, more than once, to encourage the girls. |
Archery - I even went on a course and qualified as an instructor so that I could instruct the girls too. |
Sailing on the Med! I enjoyed it so much that I took lessons and gained my Royal Yacht Association Dinghy Sailing Level 1 |
Narrowboating : this boat belongs to the local Guide Association, and eventually led to us owning part shares in a narrowboat of our own! |
