The Scouts

I was in the scouts when I 'were a lad.' 2nd Wimbledon Scout Group. I have no idea whether there was a 1st Wimbledon scout group or a 3rd Wimbledon scout group. I never saw them but surely there had to be or it would have been pointless calling our lot the 2nd Wimbledon. 

We were allowed to carry knives... in public. Yes, six inch hunting knives, strapped to our waists in a sheath and on full public display. I am not sure why we had these blades as I never stabbed anyone. In fact I never did anything useful at all with it. Occasionally we had to carve a tent peg out of a branch but since I lived in a house in Wimbledon, a single tent peg was completely unnecessary. And the local camping shop, Millets, was in Wimbledon Broadway so if I ever needed a tent peg (when you're 10, you don't) I could have bought one from my paper round money. 

These days I would have been arrested for carrying a knife with intent to carve a tent peg (and probably for wearing stupid baggy shorts, a weird neckerchief and for mumbling bollocks like DYB DYB DYB, DOB DOB DOB.)

So I managed to get through that period of childhood without stabbing anyone, or getting arrested, and completely oblivious as to how I got into the organisation in the first place and what exactly it was for in Wimbledon! With hindsight, I now believe we were a street gang, like the CRIPS and the BLOODS in LA and, with our superior weaponry, we must have eliminated the 1st and 3rd Wimbledon 'gangs' to become the dominant local outfit.