20 years on

[Cambridgeskip]

So, according to official UK Scout Association records (an awful system called Compass so unlikely to be strictly accurate!) today marks exactly 20 years since I had my first adult appointment with TSA. In practice it was before that. I was a Young Leader (not sure what you chaps call it, but what was then a venture scout, now an explorer scout helping with one of the younger age ranges) before such things officially existed and I started as an adult with a group which was a bit slow on the paper work. So 20 years was actually back in the spring. But nevertheless we’ll call it 20 years today.

 

Officially I’ve been Assistant Cub Scout Leader, Cub Scout Leader, Scout Leader and Training Adviser. I’ve politely declined Assistant District Commissioner, District Explorer Scout Commissioner and District Commissioner  (twice) Unofficially I’ve been Group Scout Leader (dreadful but necessary job) and surrogate Explorer Scout Leader to various YLs. Plus all those random things I’ve been roped into.

 

It’s one of those points in life where you do kind of pause for breath and think about what you’ve done. What you achieved and indeed what you failed to achieve. I flicked back though some old photos before work this morning and will probably do so again this evening and it brought back names and faces I’d long since forgotten. I just thought I’d share a few stories.

 

My first group in Durham (pretty, small, cathedral city between Newcastle and Sunderland) where I was a student was an interesting one. The movers and shakers were a bizarre mix. The GSL and Beaver leader (Beavers are 6-8 year olds) were husband and wife who ran a pub. I never did find out how old they were but at an estimate were in their early 60s. The SL was about 20 years old and worked nights at the Nissan car plant in Sunderland. He used to get out of bed, come to scouts, go straight to work then come home and sleep. GSL and BSL treated him like an honorary son! He also built the group a trailer out of scrap parts at the plant. The Cub Leader was an ex army officer for who health and safety was something that happened to other people and there was no such thing as can’t. His method for getting a lad who used a wheel chair through the high jump part of the athlete’s badge was frankly terrifying! The beating heart of the group was a wonderful character called Nina who’s official title was group secretary. In reality she helped with every section, fund raised, cleaned things and did everything that needed doing. She was raucously loud and never seemed to stop moving. As soon as she knew your name she’d come running up to you in the street and through her arms round you. As a 19 year old student I got some strange looks from my student friends after being accosted in just that manner in the market square by someone old enough to my mum by quite some distance! That random mix of people involved really did seem to work, all those different ages and backgrounds. It was great fun.

 

Mostly the kids I’ve dealt with have all come from safe and loving backgrounds. There’s been the odd one or two here and there who you worry about. On the way to work this morning I found myself wondering whatever happened to a lad we’ll call Bob (not his real name). Bob was a real handful as a cub. Not in a nasty way, just in an excitable, mad cap difficult to keep still kind of way. One day his sixer (do you have those? Like a patrol leader but in cubs) sat on him to keep him still! He was really quite likeable. We had a leader at the time who was a quietly spoken nun. She had Bob eating out of her hand. She seemed to have this way about her that he warmed to and he would do what she asked willingly first time. About the only adult who he did that for. Whenever I encountered mum and dad they seemed to very shouty and sweary and the way they spoke to him and about him regularly left me quite shocked. Then one day they just told me he’d quit cubs and we never saw him again. Such a shame as our nun leader seemed to be such a great influence on him. Whatever happened to him? I’d love to know. He’d be an adult now.

 

My current group is mostly from quite a middle class background and many of them are, for want of a better word, from quite a sheltered background. Something that has made me chuckle when we’ve encountered kids from slightly tougher areas! As CSL I remember being on summer camp with them when we found ourselves camped next to a group from Chelsea. Now we’re not talking the up market Kings Road Chelsea that you are probably familiar with, we’re talking the other side of Chelsea. I don’t know if the awful Grenfel Tower fire made the news your side of the pond but if it did, that part of Chelsea. My slightly posh cubs found themselves rubbing shoulders with some loud kids from inner London who frankly would have eaten them alive given the opportunity! Initially they were a bit scared but gradually started to get on with them. Fast forward a few years and the same generation were now scouts. While on camp at Hawkhirst, a huge campsite in Northumberland near the England/Scotland border a youth group (not a scout group, just some kind of youth club) from central Newcastle arrived on site. It was a very similar clash of cultures! Two of my scouts came back from the toilet block saying “I think we just met some Geordies, we had no idea what they were saying.†A long time since I laughed that much! I don’t know how much you know about Newcastle but it’s a city here with a reputation for being very loud and the locals have an impenetrable accent. I’m hoping the lesson about kids from different backgrounds actually having more in common than might be apparent wasn’t completely lost.

 

There’s no particular reason for this post beyond just sharing a few memories and thoughts. I might add to it later this evening.

[qwazse]

Unfortunate that none of us really caught on to the blog function of these forums! But do keep talking 'skip.

 

Probably while you were a cub, I was drifting through Chelsea. The vicar conscripted me to help teach the Sunday School for his grade-school children. Your descriptions make me wonder if one of the kids born from that lot drifted into the group your lot camped beside.

Edited September 29, 2017 by qwazse

[Tampa Turtle]

Wonderful story! I only got 11 years.

[mgood777]

Thank you for all the work you've put into Scouting over the years.

 

I've got 21 years in Scouting, 13 (almost 14) as an "adult leader." (I put adult leader in quotes because I'm really just a Boy Scout who never grew up.)

[Sentinel947]

16 years in Scouting. 6 years as an Adult. Been a grand time so far.

[Cambridgeskip]

Wonderful story! I only got 11 years.

11 years ago I was still cub leader and about this time of year as it happens we had one of our best days out we did.

 

One of my old house mates from university was (still is) in the navy and was captain of a minesweeper. It docked in Kings Lynn, a small port about an hour from Cambridge, for a weekend and he invited the cubs to go and have a look round. Minesweepers may not be the biggest warships but for a group of 8-10 year old cubs? It left them absolutely awe struck! What was most amusing was the attitude of officers compared to the rates. One group got shown round by an officer and he did everything very sensibly and by the book. So when they manned the fire fighting gear it was a case of spraying it out into the dock. When the group shown round by junior rates got to that part they all ended up soaking wet! Similarly when they got to man the anti aircraft gun (checked by 3 different crew to confirm the magazine was empty first!) the officer did it 2 kids at a time. The junior rates got about 8 on at a time and spun it round at maximum speed. Great fun!

 

What was most memorable was we had two new cubs to invest. We try to do it at interesting locations and where else seemed better? So we did it on the fore deck of the ship, the crew formed a guard of honour and my friend who was the captain held the pack colours for us. Getting a salute from the ship's crew afterwards was something they never forgot.