Figure 1.--

One Cub from the 1980s remembers the short pants from his uniform--the only short pants that he wore. He writes, "I started going to cub scouts from when I was 9 and continued until i was nearly 12. I went with a friend from school to the weekly meetings and often i would go to his house right after school, watch TV or play computer games, his mother would cook us tea and when it was time we would get changed and walk to the scout hut. This meant I would have to carry my cub uniform in my schoolbag that day. The main items of the uniform were dark green pullover, red neckerchief (fastened with a small plastic 'woggle'), grey shorts and grey knee socks, and a green cub cap. I had a pair of elastic garters to hold up my knee socks, these had decorative felt 'flags' attached in a shade of green to match the green pullover, although not all of the boys wore these. I had only one pair of grey shorts - these were my 'cub shorts' as for school I wore long trousers. As it was the early 1980s boy's shorts tended to be cut quite brief and my grey cub shorts were no exception. I remember i was on! ce on the way to a parade and it was raining, so I wore a heavy coat. The coat came further down my legs than did my shorts, and i felt quite self conscious, as it might have looked like i had no shorts on at all! Generally, I didn't enjoy wearing the uniform, with the brief shorts my legs felt quite exposed, often during cold or wet weather, and sometimes we would get teased by other boys from our school. All in all I was quite relieved when I reached 12 and I was old enough to leave cubs. I was one of the few who didn't go on to attend the scouts." -- Mark

School

At the time I was going to cub scouts, I went to a state primary school and we did have a uniform, which specified dark grey long trousers, a grey or blue shirt, a tie in the school colours of yellow and blue, and a navy blue v-neck pullover. This was quite a normal modern uniform for the time and in stark contrast to our rather austere and old-fashioned cub uniform.

Cubbing

I started going to cub scouts from when I was 9 and continued until i was nearly 12. I went with a friend from school to the weekly meetings and often i would go to his house right after school, watch TV or play computer games, his mother would cook us tea and when it was time we would get changed and walk to the scout hut.

Uniform

This meant I would have to carry my cub uniform in my schoolbag that day. The main items of the uniform were dark green pullover, red neckerchief (fastened with a small plastic 'woggle'), grey shorts and grey knee socks, and a green cub cap. I had a pair of elastic garters to hold up my knee socks, these had decorative felt 'flags' attached in a shade of green to match the green pullover, although not all of the boys wore these. I never really talked about the cub uniform with my friends.

Grey Shorts

I had only one pair of grey shorts - these were my 'cub shorts' as for school I wore long trousers. As it was the early 1980s boy's shorts tended to be cut quite brief and my grey cub shorts were no exception. I remember i was on! ce on the way to a parade and it was raining, so I wore a heavy coat. The coat came further down my legs than did my shorts, and i felt quite self conscious, as it might have looked like i had no shorts on at all! Generally, I didn't enjoy wearing the uniform, with the brief shorts my legs felt quite exposed, often during cold or wet weather. I remember quite often some boys would turn up with long trousers instead of shorts, and would be told off by the leaders, who would say "shorts are a normal part of everyday wear for a boy", although, needless to say, some of us would have disagreed with that at the time!

Teasing

Sometimes we would get teased by other boys from our school. All in all I was quite relieved when I reached 12 and I was old enough to leave cubs. I don't remember how the other boys at our school teased us, although it involved a fair amount of name calling and sometimes they would try to grab our caps from our heads as we walked! to cubs.

Scouts

I was one of the few who didn't go on to attend the scouts.

Mark