Brownies and Guides

[chezzachez.livejournal.com]

Just re-read Autumn Term for the first time in ages and was reminded of all the mysterious Guide protocol that had gone by my young days (1980s). I managed to find out about Tenderfoot etc on tinternet but what on Earth is "flying up"?

Comments

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

If one has the appropriate badges, at the right age leaving the Brownies and joining the Guides in a special ceremony

[hooloovoo_42]

I can't remember whether we actually had wings, or just flapped our arms, but it's the process of moving frm Brownies on to Guides. Parents came and the Guide leaders were there to welcome you at the other side of the room and take you off to the Guide company.

[clothesinbooks.livejournal.com]

As a Brownie, if you completed a set of achievements you were awarded Wings - a badge you could sew on your uniform. Then, when you reached the right age for Guides, you were allowed to fly up. You didn't have to have wings to join the Guides, they just made a bit more fuss of you if you had Wings, and it was seen as superior.

[chezzachez.livejournal.com]

Thanks everybody - but I still don't understand why they were asked not to fly up because of Pomona - sounds as though it should have been automatic?

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

It should have been, but Brownies is a huge exercise in authority and ritual being made up on the fly. Clearly Redmond thought it would look bad and be.sad for poor ickle Pomona to have to stand there and get the 30-second ceremony while two other girls got twice as much attention each.
The twins were diddled out of their expected recognition, that they'd actually earnt, unlike all the things they hoped to be recognised for but didn't merit at Kingscote, like being in 3A and the netball team.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

The more I think about it, the worse a teacher I think Redmond is

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Probably Keith's best mate from teaching college. I think Kingscote must be the only example of a weak, petulant headteacher in literature.

[res23.livejournal.com]

we had flying up in Canada too, and had the special badge to sew on your guide uniform. I'm not sure whether you had to do anything much in Brownies to get it, but you had to have been there for a while at least. I presume the twins would still have got the badge at least, if not the ceremony.

We had some of the rigamarole still in the 80s when I was a guide, but it was probably on its way out. Still had the various special 'cords' to be earned, a bit military like, as well as stripes for patrol leaders, uniform inspections, flag ceremonies, marching into horseshoe, fall-in/fall-out/at-ease commands, Captain - now that I think about it, the more military it sounds, actually! Not sure about Court of Honour, though.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

We had Court of Honour - Patrol Leaders and Guiders only - but it wasn't often a disciplinary thing - it often discussed things like where to go for camp, and who should be new Seconds
I don't find it all that surprising that they'd be asked to forego the ceremony - I'm sure they wouldn't lose the badge
The alternative might have been for Pomona to go to Guides first. If she wasn't flying up, there'd been no reason for a joint meeting - she'd just go to a Guide meeting, and she'd be settled in before their flying-up

[intrepid--fox.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you asked this, chezzachez. It had completely passed me by as well!

[(Anonymous)]

My memory of "flying up" involved jumping over the toadstool, presumably from the Brownies' side to the Guides'. I'm going right back to the 1970s here.

"Jumping over the toadstool"... ah, that sounds even more obscure than flying up. At Brownies we had a whacking great (to my 7 year-old eyes) plaster toadstool that stood in the middle of the room, and was used in various games and activities that took place in a circle. (Was the horseshoe just Guides?) When you flew up you had to jump over it, but because it was quite big for little girls (even in those pre-Health & Safety conscious days) you had friends either side of you that gave you a lift.

I'm afraid the significance of flight and Brownies escapes me; I didn't think Brownies could fly - although the "sixes" were named after elves and pixies and fairies etc. I'd forgotten there was a wings badge for it.

Thekumquat, I like your point about the twins being diddled out of recognition they'd genuinely earned, when there was so much disappointment about things they expected to be recognised for that never happened. I never thought of that!

I only found this site today (glad I did!) and I'm thinking it's time for a re-read of the series. For some reason the run-up to Christmas often makes me want to pick up End of Term, which is the one I most associate with that time of year.

Kate