Brownies

This is a 'Brownie Badge'. It's not my Brownie Badge because I was a Brownie in the 1960's when the Brownie badge was a gold coloured bar with a little elf type thing on it.

I loved being a Brownie. Brownies were good, kind kids that had fun. Brownies thought of others before themselves and did a good turn every day.

We worked towards badges. The first badge I got in the Brownies was the 'Homemaker Badge'. I had to lay and light a fire, make a pot of tea and set the table. I also got a badge for swimming. Can't remember how far I had to swim - I think it was just a length of the local pool. And the third badge I got was 'Collector' because I collected stamps.

Brownies had to carry six useful things in their pockets at all times; 2d (to make a phone call from a public phone box), piece of string (in case our shoe laces snapped), safety pin (in case our knicker elastic snapped), clean hankie, pencil and piece of paper.

Every week we had to line up in our 'sixes' (groups of six kids - I was in the imps, the others were sprites, elves & pixies) to be inspected to ensure our Brownie badge and shoes were polished, our uniform was clean and neat and we had the required six items. I can't remember what happened if we didn't come up to standard. I think it was just instilled into us that when we came to Brownies we had to look and behave in a certain manner.

Thinking about it - there was a very strict hierarchy in the Brownies. The Brownie Pack (maximum 24 kids) was run by 'Brown Owl', quite a formidable character; she was helped by 'Tawney Owl' who wasn't quite so strict; then there were a couple of 'pack leaders' (usually older girls from the Guides). Each 'six' had a 'sixer' and a 'seconder' (usually the eldest Brownies in the pack were given this privilege). The rest of the six 'looked up' to these girls and aspired to be like them. There were usually 3 or 4 newcomers who hadn't been enrolled; ie, hadn't made the 'Brownie Promise' and got their Brownie Badge.

To become a fully fledged Brownie one had to learn the Brownie promise which went vaguely along the lines of:

To become a Brownie
I promise that I will do my best
To do my duty to God
To serve the Queen
And help other people
And do a good turn every day.

The ceremony took place with all the Brownies standing in a circle with a big model toadstool in the middle. What the significance of the Toadstool was, I don't remember. Something to do with little elves running around in the woodland I guess?

However I enjoyed the Brownies. For an hour and a half once a week we got to play games, sing and generally have a good time.