Like many girls of my generation, I spent a decade or so in the Girl Guides - first as a Brownie, then as a Guide, a Pathfinder, and finally a Junior Leader. Looking back, I value those experiences a lot. They taught me a great deal about teamwork, community building, and learning outside my comfort zone.
My Girl Guide leader was a woman my sisters and I still refer to as "Captain Beacock". I admired her tremendously but she also scared the living bejesus out of me. Disappointing Captain - ever - wasn't an option. On one particularly memorable wilderness camping expedition, she insisted a small group of us (the oldest of whom was 13 or 14) spend the night in a leaky lean-to in the midst of a hurricane. I kid you not. In the end, other leaders, concerned we might be smote by falling trees, rescued us so we spent the last part of the night in a warm, dry cabin nearby, but she'd have left us in the woods if she'd had her way.
Our Pathfinder leader was the complete antithesis of Captain. Candy (I don't remember her last name) was only a few years younger than Captain, but she was a hippy dippy flower child. What I remember most about her - aside from her afro hairstyle, peasant blouses and platform shoes - was that she had a pet iguana, chain-smoked and lived in a mobile home, where she often hosted our meetings.
One memorable weekend, she took a group of us to northern NS for a "camping" weekend. In fact, we didn't camp since we stayed in a cottage owned by one of the camper's parents. And we didn't spend the weekend honing our outdoor survival skills. Candy apparently thought other survival skills were more important - so we spent the weekend learning to drink wine, smoke cigarettes and deal with the attention of the various young men (and not so young men) hanging around the beach, who likely saw us as easy prey.
In retrospect, it was a crazy thing to do - taking a group of small town girls away like that - but, as far as I can recall, Candy handled it all with ease - keeping a close on us throughout the weekend, gently teaching us to look after ourselves and one another, intervening when necessary to ensure we made it safe home, and giving us the opportunity to experience our first tastes of freedom in relative safety.
I've no idea where Candy ended up, which is too bad. I'd like to thank her for that weekend, and all the other times she supported us girls as we worked at becoming strong, independent women. Captain too. They were role models at a time we sorely needed them.
My Girl Guide leader was a woman my sisters and I still refer to as "Captain Beacock". I admired her tremendously but she also scared the living bejesus out of me. Disappointing Captain - ever - wasn't an option. On one particularly memorable wilderness camping expedition, she insisted a small group of us (the oldest of whom was 13 or 14) spend the night in a leaky lean-to in the midst of a hurricane. I kid you not. In the end, other leaders, concerned we might be smote by falling trees, rescued us so we spent the last part of the night in a warm, dry cabin nearby, but she'd have left us in the woods if she'd had her way.
Our Pathfinder leader was the complete antithesis of Captain. Candy (I don't remember her last name) was only a few years younger than Captain, but she was a hippy dippy flower child. What I remember most about her - aside from her afro hairstyle, peasant blouses and platform shoes - was that she had a pet iguana, chain-smoked and lived in a mobile home, where she often hosted our meetings.
One memorable weekend, she took a group of us to northern NS for a "camping" weekend. In fact, we didn't camp since we stayed in a cottage owned by one of the camper's parents. And we didn't spend the weekend honing our outdoor survival skills. Candy apparently thought other survival skills were more important - so we spent the weekend learning to drink wine, smoke cigarettes and deal with the attention of the various young men (and not so young men) hanging around the beach, who likely saw us as easy prey.
In retrospect, it was a crazy thing to do - taking a group of small town girls away like that - but, as far as I can recall, Candy handled it all with ease - keeping a close on us throughout the weekend, gently teaching us to look after ourselves and one another, intervening when necessary to ensure we made it safe home, and giving us the opportunity to experience our first tastes of freedom in relative safety.
I've no idea where Candy ended up, which is too bad. I'd like to thank her for that weekend, and all the other times she supported us girls as we worked at becoming strong, independent women. Captain too. They were role models at a time we sorely needed them.
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