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Ann had a hoot being Brown Owl
SOMETHING happens to Ann Johnson when she starts flicking through the pile of photos sitting on her coffee table.
Her face visibly lights up as the memories of nearly half a century spent of playing surrogate mum to thousands of Leeds girls flash before her eyes.
“Some of the names come back to you in a second,” she says, holding up one photo of a grinning youngster enjoying a trip to the coast. “She was a bright thing, a real spark to her. I wonder what she’s doing now.”
One of the earliest photos in Ann’s collection shows a Brownie pack standing stiffly for the camera in neat rows. At the back, in the middle, is an attractive young woman who could easily be mistaken for one of the girls’ older sisters.
“That’s me,” she says, “that was taken in 1963 so I would have been 19. I strongly suspect I was too young to take over but back then the rules weren’t as tight as they are now.
“But the uniforms are so much better these days,” she adds, looking at the photo again in the neat lounge of her West Park home. “Those hard ties and silly dresses that were freezing cold in winter and boiling hot in summer. They maybe fitted the time but children now wouldn’t thank you for wearing them.”
After 46 years as leader of the 95th Leeds Brownie pack you would be forgiven for thinking Ann Johnson was looking forward to retirement. And you would be entirely wrong.
“It rankles sometimes but it’s right,” she says, as if she’s still trying to convince herself of the virtue of a rule that says Brown Owls must call it a day at 65.
“Of course it will be a wrench but years ago you had these spinsters who went on for far too long because it was their life and it’s not fair on the youngsters. They need someone younger.”
Brownies and Guides have been a huge part of life for Ann and her family.
Her sister Ruth Errington, a Guide leader, still holds bragging rights because she joined the 95th, based at Wrangthorn Church on Hyde Park Corner, at the age of seven – a full year before Ann.
If you ask Ann to name the best thing about being a Brown Owl she says it’s watching the girls grow up. Getting to know all the characters, all the little people who pass through.
“A girl will arrive at seven years-old, often shy because Brownie meetings can be noisy affairs, and then you see her start to gain confidence, to find her voice.
“Sometimes you only see them for a year or two but you sow the seeds and off they go.
“Often you wonder if they went on and fulfilled their potential, that little spark you could see when they were eight or nine. Did they go on to pursue their dreams or not?”
In some cases Ann, who works part-time at Leeds University, has been able to find out. She still sees a handful of the girls who have passed through the pack down the decades. Some send Christmas cards, a few still call her Brown Owl.
They find it hard not to, she says, as if she finds it a little bit embarrassing, although you get the impression that secretly she rather enjoys it.
“I have got a lot of fun out of it and a lot of friendships too, many that have lasted to this day.
“And over the years you realise that you learnt all kinds of things like semaphore, or how to tie a knot, or little things like the words to the national anthem.
“How many children these days know the national anthem? Where will they learn it? It’s not taught in schools as far as I know. They don’t hear it, they don’t know what it is.
“There’s no syllabus for Brownies but there’s scope for learning almost anything. It provides girls with the chance to learn all kinds of life skills that somehow seem to get lost in this mad world of ours.
“They learn how to work together as a team, play fair and look after each other. They can see what’s out there in this vast world we live in and make educated choices.”
Then there are the trips out; the annual pantomime which surprises youngsters who have never been to live theatre before and can’t believe the people on stage are real, and the countless visits out of the city on camps or day trips.
“You take them over a stile for the first time, or they see something they’ve never seen before. It’s about filling in all the little gaps that they don’t have time for these days and hopefully producing valuable members of society who can think for themselves. It’s about empowering them.”
Ann is just back from a Brownie pack holiday to the moors above Burley-in-Wharfedale, the last she will go on as Brown Owl. She didn’t think it would be emotional but it was.
“They’re a wonderful bunch of kids and we had a lovely time. They did their own cooking, learnt archery, made kites and played, which children don’t do enough of.”
The great thing is that Ann is leaving the movement in rude health: there are more than 3,000 Brownies in Leeds – that’s one in four of the city’s eight-year-olds.
Demand
Such is the demand that there aren’t enough leaders (who are all unpaid volunteers) to go around and her pack has only been able to keep going with the aid of outside help from willing students.
And at least she’s leaving the girls in good hands. Continuing the family tradition, Ann’s daughter Vicki will take over as Brownie leader when her mum retires at the end of July.
“Vicki will do a wonderful job, although I suppose I would say that. No, she’s just the sort we need in guiding – young and enthusiastic.
“And it means we get our weekends back. My husband Steve has been so supportive over the years, taking me to meetings every Friday night. We’ll be able to get away a bit more now.”
That’s not to say Ann won’t still be involved in some capacity, though. She now plans to join the Trefoil Guild which is made up of former guiders who act as a support network for the movement.
“It means I can go back and help occasionally with my old unit when necessary,” she says, and you know for sure there’s nothing she will enjoy more.
l A reunion to mark Ann Johnson’s retirement will take place at Wrangthorn Curch Hall on Hyde Park Corner on Saturday, July 4 from 4-7pm. Any of Ann’s former Brownies or members of their family are welcome to drop in and share their memories. grant.woodward@ypn.co.uk
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Weather for Leeds
Thursday 24 May 2012
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