Celebrations and memories at the scouting reunion
"WHAT I remember is going away for two weeks camping under canvas," said Phil Kitchen fondly.
"And we had to dig a loo that was six foot deep. We called it the bomb trench."
Around him fellow members of the 1973-78 Fulwood scout troop nodded their heads and smiled in happy memory of digging a six foot deep toilet for scores of teenagers in the middle of a field.
"It was the range of activities," said Brian Macintyre. "We had 'wide games' with two teams and two boxes of newspapers. Everyone was given one match and the team that won was the team that set fire to the other team's box of newspapers. Those were the rules: period." He laughed. "That was fairly character building."
Last Saturday current and former members of the 142nd Fulwood Scout group congregated in the old scout hut on Fulwood Road to celebrate 60 continuous years of scouting in the area.
The celebrations included campfire food, games and the chance to see old photographs and logbooks of scouting in the past – but the main attraction for the 90 members and former members who attended with their families was the chance to catch up with old friends.
"I've not seen some of these people for about 30 years," said Graeme Whillance, "but it's incredible, everyone's still recognisable – they're just a bit bigger."
Organiser and scout leader Mike Halliwell said the aim was simply to reunite people involved in the scout group since 1949. "We've been organising for today since January and soon after I started looking into the history I discovered that the first group actually met in 1919."
The Fulwood Church Troop only lasted a year or two and there were one or two other gaps before the current continuous run of Fulwood scouting began 60 years ago. "But we might be back in ten years to celebrate our centenary," said Mike.
Colin Roberts was a scout leader at Fulwood for 27 years (including the mid 1970s) and took on the job of seeking out former members for the celebration.
"We used Facebook, Friends Reunited, Sheffield Forum, word of mouth. We had contact with people from Oxford and London but a lot of people hadn't actually moved away. It's been very enjoyable and interesting talking to the older chaps."
At the time he was a leader Colin wasn't actually so much older than his troop, he added.
The Seventies scouts were very pleased to meet their leader again on Saturday. "He's still a character," said Graeme Whillance, after Colin had ducked away to mingle. "What he gave to us is second to none. His life was effectively on hold to give us whatever we wanted to do every week."
Phil Kitchen recalled the camaraderie of the troop and the independence it offered to teenagers. "Going on night hikes and having to use a compass and map to fend for yourself – I don't know if you get that independence these days, when people are mollycoddled and spoon fed with stuff."
Mike Halliwell actually felt that in some respects little had changed in Fulwood scouting over the years. "The activities I do today can be seen on photos from the 1950s.
We still build rafts and bridges by tying logs together, we go camping in fields without running water or toilets, and it actually probably happened like that in 1919, too."
He added that the new troop in 1919 was launched after about 40 scout troops closed in the city – presumably, he said, because their leaders had been killed in the First World War.
The national movement is struggling to find leaders nowadays but Fulwood seems to be attracting enough people to help out at present.
Colin Roberts said that in the 1970s the group was able to rely on several enthusiastic university students. "The older people could rely on students to do all the running around," he said, adding that reliable assistant leaders are still always welcome.
"I think scouting still teaches valuable life skills," said Mike.
"Getting outside, for example. It's a revelation to some of them that you don't have to plug anything in to entertain yourself.
"And there's lots of enjoyment for leaders. I think it prevents you having a mid-life crisis, because you never grow up."
Phil Kitchen and the Seventies troop watched the young scouts and beavers helping with the ancient water boiler, while their fellow returnees examined the logbooks detailing wide games and rope lashings of the past. "I think it's fantastic that what we did all that time ago is still taking place now," said Phil.
lThe Fulwood Scout Group can be found at www.142group.net. Volunteers and others can contact the group at scouts@142group.net
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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