Tom memories, Chapter 12a, Darwen up till 1947, cubs
(started 2 Sept 2014)
And we’re still in “Darwen up till 1947,” and so here’s a short section on my membership of the St Cuthbert’s church cub pack. I really liked cubs very much and felt very enthusiastic about the ideals, the promise, the law, as well as the atmosphere of the meetings, the parades, the games, the things we learnt, first aid, tying knots, etc, etc. Unfortunately my progress was completely blocked because the first qualification that you needed was your first star; equivalent to the second class scout badge in the scouts. You had to pass a whole lot of tests, knots, map reading and so on, which I did with ease, except one. You had to be able to do thirty skips backwards with a skipping rope and I never got anywhere near to managing that. And so I never passed my first star, (worn on your cub cap) and so I could never take any of the tests for proficiency badges. Which makes me even more happy and proud when I think about the sleeve of Caroline’s brownie uniform covered in proficiency badges.
I was a cub for a full three years from 1944 to 1947, so from the age of just eight up to ten, nearly eleven. We met in the evenings, Mondays I seem to remember, from 7 until 9 I think, in a biggish room at St Cuthbert’s primary school, very close to Hollins Grove school, perhaps two or three hundred yards away. And ten minutes walk from home – if you didn’t dawdle. Our uniform consisted of grey jerseys, grey shorts and blue neckerchiefs, plus the green cub cap with yellow beading and the wolf cub badge at the front. I’ve no idea how I came to join the cubs or why I was sent to St Cuthbert’s. Most of the kids up Sunnyhurst went to the Duckworth Street cubs, by Duckworth Street Congregational Church near Darwen town centre, if they went at all. I always had the feeling that they were superior; they wore green jerseys. The only kid up Sunnyhurst who went to St Cuthbert’s was Tony Collins, and I quite often walked down and back up with him.
The pack leader, for all the three years that I went, was a Mrs Turner; she was very popular and well liked, very firm and very knowledgeable about everything to do with cubs, or so it seemed to me. During the week, I occasionally saw Mrs. Turner working at a grocery stall in Darwen market hall, which was always a big thrill and she was always smiling and friendly. There was never an assistant at cubs, except in the last year, Tony Collins was made senior sixer, and so not attached to a six but, well, Mrs Turner’s assistant. Tony’s birthday was 4 September, and although he was a year ahead of me all the way up Hollins Grove school, he was one of the kids who had to repeat the final year at Hollins Grove because at that time you could not go up to secondary school unless you had turned eleven by 31 August. (Which means that if I’d gone to Darwen Grammar School, I’d have had to repeat my final year at Hollins Grove. For some reason, this rule did not apply if you went to Lancaster, though this was also a state school).
The vicar of St Cuthbert’s church, Rev Charles(?) Fletcher, sometimes showed up, but I don’t think he did much to help. He used to watch, and if any of the kids did anything that he considered wrong, he used to cuff them on the back of the head. I kept out of his way, and certainly felt that all that cuffing was not what you should expect from a man of God.
We were organised into teams called sixes, usually six to a six. I think there were about 36 of us, grouped into six sixes. I was in the black six (perhaps I should start using ISTR as an abbreviation for I Seem To Remember). In my last year I was the seconder ,and so got a yellow band to wear round the arm of my uniform. Our sixer that year was called Frank Wade and he got two yellow bands. As senior sixer, Tony Collins had three.
Here’s a curious thing. Frank Wade and I really got on well, he was a nice kid, a good sixer. He lived – as we said – up Avondale, and was next door neighbour to Derek Walsh who was in my class all the way through Hollins Grove. (I mentioned Derek – he had bright red hair – as a kid whom I can remember screaming his head off on his first day at school, in the baby class). Anyway, Frank went to St Cuthbert’s primary school, so I only ever saw him at cubs. Later, when we were both teenagers, I often saw him on the Sunnyhurst bus going down into or up out of the Darwen town centre. For a while he dressed in full teddy boy gear. But we never once spoke to one another or showed the least flicker of recognition. That’s adolescence for you!
As well as the Monday meeting, there were occasional church parades, when we marched to and from St Cuthbert’s church behind the scouts, who had a band, bugles and drums. I can remember having to be shown where we were up to in the liturgy of the service (matins), because no one had ever shown me how or where to find the place in the Book of Common Prayer.
Otherwise there were no special activities, just the Monday evenings, no doubt very typical cub meetings. Breaking and saluting the flag, times of games, lots of relay races, times of instruction, all the things you had to know for your stars and your badges; for me quite a lot of time failing so skip backwards with a skipping rope – or giving up and fooling around. Sometimes inductions or little award ceremonies, prayers to finish. Nothing very special or dramatic ever happened that I can tell you about. Quite a lot of talk about Mowgli and the jungle book. So there you have it; a page and a bit about cubs. There’s a photograph of Tony Collins and me in cub uniform in my photo album by the way.
Greenwood family history 