Brownie Handbook
I had a trip back in time this week when my girlfriend and I decided to look in a used book store over lunch hour. We had been in this particular shop before, and had purchased a Julia Child cook book, but we hadn't really spent much time in the place.
Until this week, we hadn't realized how big the shop is - a strange collection of irregular little rooms, awkwardly connected like odd beads on a string; each crammed floor to ceiling with different book categories and sections; and interspersed with jewelery, china, old photos and other collectibles - some treasure and a lot of trash. Squeezing into the fifth and final room in this maze, I found some kids books from the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
I first noticed Nancy Drew - the distinctive turquoise blue binding jumped out at me and I asked my girlfriend if she had read Nancy Drew - my sisters loved them but they were a bit before my time. "No", she replied, "I hated Nancy Drew - she was too perfect and I couldn't relate to her. I liked Trixie Belden - she was kind of a tom boy like me." Well we found some Trixie Belden books - originals from the 50s and some reprints from the 70s, and I wanted to buy her one, but she wasn't interested.
Then I saw it... the Brownie Handbook! It was in pristine condition and only $4.75 -- my eyes teared up as I thumbed through the illustrations. I was eight again, in my brown leotards, beret and tunic - Brownies were uber cool and a pretty big deal for me back in the day!
But I am trying to cut back on frivolous spending, and declutter my life, so I put the book back and stepped out of the past, into my adult shoes, leaving the child inside me dancing around a mushroom while Tawny Owl and my fellow Imps and Pixies looked on.
As we left the store, my girlfriend stopped at the front counter - I thought, just to talk to the shop keeper. Then I saw she had the Brownie Handbook in hand. She just knows what my
heart needs - better than I do sometimes; what can I say?
I am keeping the Handbook on my office desk - a reminder of the little girl who just wanted to do her best every day and have a little fun in the process - a little girl for who the world was full of positivity and promise.
As we said in Wolf Cubs: DYB DYB DYB DYB!
ReplyDeleteThey have done away with the weird little green hats.
If found from having my kids in Scouts that I was one of the very first Beavers ever, since the 30th anniversary came around in something like 2004. That uniform has never changed: brown vest, pale blue bucket hat with a light brown trim, different coloured beaver tails for each year. But they did away with the story about Beavers getting struck by lighting when they "swim up" to transmogrify into Wolf Cubs.