To ask if you were a brownie or a guide?

Same. Looking at some of the responses here, I was obviously lucky in the pack I was in. We did plenty of camping, hiking, orienteering, making fires etc. We made bivouacs and A-Frames out of wood to cross streams. I loved making furniture on the camps- stringing sticks together to make draining boards and stands for the washing bowls 😂 Our leader was great: old-skool and quite strict, but she wasn’t into arts and crafts and got us outdoors a lot.

Yes I was a Brownie. We lived in a very small town and it was one of those activities that everyone did. Then when I was 8 we moved to a city and there were lots of other activities to do, so I never re-joined Brownies.

I went to Brownies. It was all right but I’d have been just as happy not going, IYSWIM.

I briefly went to Guides but hated it so didn’t stick with it for long. I found all the promising to God and the Queen stuff uncomfortable as by that age I was very certain that I didn’t believe in God and didn’t support the monarchy.

Oh, yes! That was going from Tweenies to Brownies. 💡

In Ireland so brownie, bridgín (pronounced bridgeen) and guide, left guides after a short while as we had a lot of ‘Mean Girls’ in our patrol. (Shudders)

I was a Kelpie. I really liked that part, and the rhymes, and the songs. But our brownies was so lame. I was fully expecting swallows and amazons camping, knot tying, midnight feasts, learning of skills, building fires, filling kettles carefully from lakes. But there was none of that at our one. They rationed the fun games to once a month as we’d all get too giddy. The hostess badge was lame enough, but we used boxed cake mix to make the toxic looking little fairy cakes. I was so embarrassed.

I finished brownies and never went on to guides. My younger sister went to scouts instead - they did much better things like kayaking. I am sure there were loads of great brownie groups but ours wasn’t one of them! At least I got to wear brownie uniform on st George’s day at school.

Our kids have done scouting all the way through, and it’s been fantastic. They don’t have to put their letters in their socks at the start of the evening “so they don’t forget to give them to their parents”. Grr.

I was sixer in the gnomes as well!

I was a Brownie. Went to St John Ambulabce cadets rather than guides.

You'd be welcome back as a leader

Sixer of the Kelpies, patrol leader of the Wrens checking in. I loved it but I wanted to do a gazillion badges and the leaders never wanted to do that many.

We had a deaf girl in our Girl Guides pack so we all learned the BSL alphabet and some basic sign language. That was 4 decades ago and I still remember it all.

My daughter did Brownies and loved it. She did many badges and got her gold award. She had to give up guides as basically it was a bunch of young teenage girls running riot and she always ended up just chatting to the leaders cleaning and tidying everyone’s mess.

Both Brownies and Guides for me. I loved collecting badges. Not entirely sure I remember anything I learned for the badges though, beyond polishing pennies for some reason!

Never made it to Guides as I quit Brownies due to it being so lame!

I was a brownie. Never lasted long enough to go guides as I never stuck at anything

I still have my brown dress.

I went up to London to model the new uniform on a catwalk/runway in front of Princess Margaret. It was filmed for the Clothes Show. I thought I was the bees knees.

My 7yo DD has recently joined Brownies. She seems to enjoy it

The first (and only!) time I have ever pulled a sickie was when it was knot tying badge day at brownies. I found them really tricky, and my mum didn’t know it was a badge day, so I told
her I was too poorly to go…

The other week at Forest School with my toddler I had to ask for help doing square lashing and confessed this to the group leader who laughed in my face and showed me, very patiently, how to do it.

I was a Brownie (a Pixie, a Sprite and a Gnome because I changed packs when we moved house) then a Guide (patrol leader of the Robins).

After a long gap, I then spent ten very long years as a Brown Owl.

Nah our was too (early 80s) - it's so easy to forget how sexist life was just a few decades ago.

My brother was a cub and went camping and learnt how to build a bivouac which looked more fun.

We did that at guide camp.

I loved camping with the guides.

The waiting list for Brownies was so long I didn't get in until about a term before I was too old and had to move up to Guides, who met immediately after on the same evening. I got to the first Guides meeting at the right time and the leader said 'Are you flying up or coming up?' and I hadn't a clue what she was on about. Totally baffled. As Brown Owl was leaving, she walked past and said she'd been really annoyed I hadn't come to my 'flying up' ceremony. I had apparently committed some awful faux-pas and because I'd scorned this important tradition, the guide leader was cross with me as well.

WTF? It upset me quite a lot, to be honest. Soured the whole thing.

I went to Brownies but didn't like it. I thought it was old-fashioned and sexist back then (80s). All we did was crafts and learn things like housework - how to iron, how to polish silver FFS.

My brother was a cub and went camping and learnt how to build a bivouac which looked more fun.

I dont know if it was just our pack that was like this?

Attended brownies in the mid-late 80s and loved it, I was sixer of the pixies!
I have often spoken of some of my best childhood memories being at brownies, particularly when we camped for the weekend (in bunk bedded huts). My Dad was an alcoholic plus I had a toddler brother die so home life wasn’t particularly happy and brownies then guides gave me many happy childhood memories which I am very grateful for! I think I left guides when I was 14 as I was starting to go out (aka hanging on street corners or fields!) with friends.

My son has just finished beavers and is now at cubs and I attend as his 121 (he’s autistic and adhd) so am thoroughly enjoying the experience all over again with him.

I was in both, but only because my mother made me go. I was a deeply unsociable, shy child who just wanted to be left alone to read and she thought it would be good for me. It wasn't, I hated it. I did learn some useful skills though. Eventually I got brave and told the Guide leader I wouldn't be coming again and my mother was furious. At least she never tried to force an activity on me again.

I was a Brownie. We bought our house from the Brown Owl when we moved towns and I think she enlisted my mum as she became Tawny Owl and me and my sister joined.

Loved brownies but hated guides - so stayed on as a helper with younger brownies
Later on when my DC were young I helped out with cubs and scouts

I don’t think anyone’s quoted this one yet:

‘Twist me and turn me and show me the elf, I looked in the water and there saw…myself’ (That was when you were enrolled I think).

And the songs…

‘Oh you’ll never get to heaven in Brown Owl’s bra, ‘cause Brown Owl’s bra won’t stretch that far’

(We changed it to ‘would stretch too far’ because our Brown Owl was very buxom)