As we were doing some knots and lashings last night for the younger Scouts, it made me think what would one of our original Scouts from 1908 made of us and Porthill today?
He would probably recognise a lot of the area still as a fair proportion of the houses still around were built in his time. The Church was there already, so were the larger houses on Porthill Bank and the terrace houses near the Church.
However, what he would have known as fields a bit further away, are now covered in houses. The roads he knew would be full of cars, both parked and moving and there would be no more horses or trams. People's dress would confuse him as every man doesn't wear a hat and the women would be wearing trousers. He would have left school at 12 and would now be working. The Titanic had yet to be built, let alone sink and his future was not too secure as the Great War was only 6 years away.
When he saw the current Scouts he would notice that they wouldn't be wearing hats, had no Scout Staff, they wore shirts and long trousers! Of course the biggest change would be that there were girls in the Troop!
He would recognise the fact that the Scouts are still in patrols with animal names, we break and salute our flag at the beginning of every meeting and we still do knots and lashings and go camping. He might not recognise what the Street Sports badge is about, but he'd still recognise what a lot of the badges and awards are for.
I think he'd also be pleasantly surprised to find out that the Troop he helped start 100 years ago was still going strong and was now a Group with Beavers and Cubs and is very proud of its past.