Do you know what I’ve not seen for years…

[BathshebaKnickerStickers]

Majorettes….!!! When I was little in the 70s and 80s there were loads of Majorette troops. They were on Blue Peter all the time…!

I was playing a family game of Badminton yesterday (we are at Center Parcs) and I remember spending hours in my back garden twirling a badminton racquet and marching.

i live a a decent sized city and brought up 3 girls here…. Unheard of now.

Has cheerleading caused the demise of majorettes…?? Should I think about other things while playing badminton…??

Also - boats being launched - that was on the news all the time…..

I remember Majorettes...I desperately wanted to be one as they seemed so glittering and glamorous to nine year old me.

Looking back now they were actually ridiculous. Stupid hats and pointless baton twirling.

They realised they looked ridiculous?!

I think the whole spectacle of young girls in short skirts/shorts and knee socks might feel quite uncomfortable today. Bit like minipops. I'm sure there's far worse on TikTok, but still.

My mum wouldn't let me join the local troop. I did all the other usual stuff...Brownies and what have you, but she wasn't entertaining Majorettes at all.
I can't really remember what her reasoning was at the time (I think she just dismissed it with a snort every time I brought it up) but as an adult now, I imagine she didn't want me prancing about in a skimpy outfit wearing a silly hat.

Yeah our local town had a troup and they always turned out for various events like the annual carnival.

Thinking about it I haven't seen any for ages but I assumed it was because I had moved to South London and our equivalent is a kids samba band who turn up at events with drums and colourful carnival constumes.

I was a majorette, it generally moved away from the American idea of band and military music particularly with few town carnivals etc and became focused on baton twirling and poms, depending on your area there may be a thriving community. The world baton twirling competitions were held in the UK a few years ago. is more like rhythmic gymnastics than anything

The military aspect of it probably put my mum off as well, thinking about it. My mum was a bit of a lentil-knitting crusty and had absolutely no interest in such things.

It wasn't military, military just some of the outfits and some competitive sections were more akin to drill - which put me in good stead when I joined cadets later on.

There was just as much flouncing in sequinned leotards and dancing about.

I have fantastic hand eye coordination now, but did spend a good deal of my teens covered in bruises and the odd broken finger, sprained wrists and ankles (in fact I had far more injuries than my rugby playing DD) and more than one concerned teacher asking if everything was alright at home.

I used to practice with a baton but I can't remember if there was a troop anywhere near us.

I am sure they could do their thing without skimpy outfits if people wanted to bring them back!

I was just thinking that this type of thing would liven up our carnival! Its now mostly tweens waving from floats - yawn.

You can't deny they were impressive - even with the dodgy outfits - bring back majorettes!

In my experience outfits were never skimpy, they may have had skin coloured panels though. I had some beautiful bespoke leotards although like dance they were £££. The drill type ones with the daft hats weren't skimpy but certainly weren't fashionable in any way shape or form.

Having bare skin in some places was really useful as you become more advanced as the friction from skin : baton helped with more complex rolls sections, I had a full sleeved leotard and it was far more difficult to execute certain moves wearing it.