A WELL-TRAVELLED STICK

Congratulations to you, and your team, on a superb autumn issue of

This England. It was so full of the most interesting and informative articles, both historical and current. Amongst them, I was especially interested in Jan Johnstone’s article on the hazel tree, and that the coppiced wood made for a number of items including walking staffs.

Back in the 1950s, the Boy Scout uniform included a generic staff.

Upon reaching mid-teens and moving into a more senior section, the staff could be replaced with a “Thumb Stick”. One with a notched support more attuned to an active hiking, rambling outdoor life. This longanticipated move up involved, for the writer, a visit to Irene’s Scout Shop in Hanwell (then Middlesex) to select this symbol of the higher Scouting ranks. Once the special stick was chosen, I was advised that it was hazel wood, and told to “look after it”.

Upon leaving the shop, neither the stick, nor I, knew that before them lay a 70-year journey!

Initially, the new Thumb Stick was proudly carried on many hikes and camps, often used as a tent pole at the front of temporary bivouacs! The stick had a two-year hiatus when the owner was on National Service, but was then quickly returned to active use afterwards. By this time, the family had moved from Middlesex to Hertfordshire. I became a Scoutmaster in Rickmansworth. During this period, it again found life on hikes and camps, particularly around the Chalfont Heights Scout Camp property.

In the 1960s the stick was carried to Canada, and taken on further activities with a Scout Troop in St Catharines, Ontario. More camps and more rambles came along, including leadership training courses, before yet another change. In 1967, I became a member of the Scouts Canada Executive Staff, but still the stick was a companion, taken to various camporees and outdoor activities until it was given a rest while work took the owner into the Ontario Scout Office for five years.

Then off to yet another change for the well-travelled piece of hazel wood. First back in the field, but this time in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, for a few months before stick accompanied the owner when he was transferred to Vancouver as the Executive Director for Scouting in the Province. Now it found itself in even more exciting activities such as Provincial Jamborees. Another 10 years followed for the stick, before a return to Ontario and a more sedate role as a friend for the Chief

Executive Officer before retiring.

The Thumb Stick, now retired for a little over 20 years, is the proud possessor of little plaques carefully nailed to its wood, ranging from Gilwell Park to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, along with Canadian Jamborees. Today, the well-travelled hazel looks back to that day, those many years ago, when the young purchaser was urged to “look after it”. The stick believes that has been done! John Pettifer, CEO Scouts Canada (retired), Penticton, BC, Canada.