Things that have been found

[st_aurafina]

I don't even. It's a Baden-Powell nightmare situation:




[Brown tunic and beret, uniform for Brownie Guides, which is the junior version of Girls Guides.]



Anyone want Star Trek Barbie and Ken? I feel like they will go to a better home if I ask here, rather than donating them. Aussies, I'll cover postage. Overseas, it would probably be about $20 postage to anywhere but the US, and $30 to the US because things cost more to send there. Barbie and Ken are claimed!



They're mint!! Or at least, they've never gone outside their protective plastic forcefield.


[Star Trek Barbie and Ken in the box, there are cardboard cutouts of Kirk and Spock]

Comments

[st_aurafina]

It was such a cult, wasn't it! Seriously, I'm pretty sure we had to stand in front of a photo of Queen Elizabeth and recite a pledge.

[mergatrude]

I promise that I will do my best to do my duty to god, to serve the queen and help other people, and to keep the brownie guide law.

*shudders*

I was a brownie for less than a year!

[st_aurafina]

Holy crap, I still remember it too! Did you do that thing where you had to go down the path and look in the mirror? Did your pack have a creepy wooden toadstool?

[mergatrude]

Yesssssss! Seriously, I can't even begin to make sense of all that. It seems kind of Wiccan, in retrospect.

I was not a good brownie. My overriding memory is of being made to stand on one leg with my hands on my head, in a corner. Because I'd forgotten my knitting.

[alexbayleaf]

OH GOD THE CREEPY TOADSTOOL WHAT EVEN WAS THAT.

And these weird little rhymes about these vaguely appropriative pseudo-aboriginal fairy-ish characters that were the different groups... our was something like "We're Tintookies // What we do // Is try to make // Your wish come true"

The internet tells me: "Tintookies are ground-dwelling spirits. They are extremely inquisitive, but their special interest is helping to make wishes come true when deserved. Nobody has ever seen a Tintookie, as they do their good deeds by stealth." (The Australian Brownie Guide Handbook, 1975)"

And here's the whole horrible poem.

[alexbayleaf]

I was JUST about to post exactly that /o\

Brainwashing I tell you.

[elspethdixon]

The American version (as of 1992-96) went, "On my honor, I will try, to serve God, and my country, to help people, at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout law." (commas inserted everywhere we paused stiltedly while we recited it in sing-songy voices)

I stayed in all the way through Juniors, largely because my best friend whom I played elaborate imaginary games that were basically verbal/acted-out-with-barbies RPGs with was the troop leader's daughter.