Ah, the archives, which need much more attention than they're getting. Here's the log for my Hiker's Badge when I was a Guide. I was a Guide for the full number of years, becoming a Queen's Guide, the highest award, and yet I wasn't really all that keen on it. I quite liked doing some of the badges, but really would have been just as happy staying at home reading a book. Yet it did encourage me to research things such as the Commonwealth (Commonwealth Knowledge Badge, which I did just at the time that Northern Rhodesia became the independent Zambia, so my not-very-good grasp of African history suddenly improved, at least in that small part); knots (which I do still occasionally use, though mainly in remembering the important difference between a reef knot and a granny knot); and the weather (though I can't claim always to know the difference between a cirrus and a cirrostratus cloud).
Anyway, here are my friend Jane and I, hiking in the Pentlands and cooking, according to my log book, a rather ambitious meal of chops, tinned peas. baked potatoes and baked apple and custard. (One had to cook on hikes to qualify for the badge.) I'm the one on the left, probably looking revolted at the chops, which I can't imagine that I actually ate, being vegetarian as far as I was allowed from when I was a child. I was 13 in this photo, Jane 14. Why did our parents let us hike on the hills alone at that age, I wonder? Though as Mr L points out, someone else must have been there to take the photo. I think taking an adult would have contravened the map-reading spirit of the thing. Possibly it was my big brother?
The trouble with keeping such things for 57 years is that they become part of history and difficult to throw out. Would my great-grandchildren be interested? Hmm.
(I think I met Mr L the following year, though it wasn't till the end of 1967 that we became an item. I was a whole 17 by then. Goodness me. And here we still are.)
We even saw some enormous bunnies, which Big Granddaughter enjoyed. Well, we all did. Aaaah. As long as they don't come and visit my garden.
Wonderful to be able to walk outside and be with family. You've known Mr L for a long time! I was a CampFire girl and indifferent about most of the activities since they involved crafts and other things I wasn't good at!
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I would have been the girl that stayed home with a good book. However, on the Island where I grew up we didn't have Brownies and Girl Scouts available to us. My daughter who grew up in a city had no interest. Like Mother like daughter I guess. 💖
ReplyDeleteI wonder what island that was. I love islands.
DeleteAh, what to do with all the archives. I do wish you were here to give me guidance on what to keep and what to purge. I have boxes just stuffed into a spare room. Ideally, I'd like to get the in-law memories winnowed down to one large box and my parents memories also into one large box. And then ours, the same. That way the children will only be burdened by 3 large boxes. I've heard people say that we should digitize all the photos and then everything will be on the computer. That doesn't seem like a good plan to me. They would have to open files to even know what they had. And what happens when digital mediums change? etc., etc., etc.... I love the camping picture of you -- what a wonderful memory. I can't imagine that your grandchildren wouldn't want to keep it!
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