Blanket Coverage

To the best of my recollection this is my old Scout blanket. I and my brother and sister each had one, each being decorated a different way depending on what we'd aggregated through Cubs, Scouts, Girl Guides (I should clarify that only one of us was in that) and possibly some parts beyond - although I suspect that by the time we were Venturers or Rovers the badge thing wasn't so prominent. There are plenty of examples of this kind of thing on the internet, and it was a NZ phenomenon, too, as a particularly fine example belonging to friends (but on an army blanket rather than the grey here) indicated a few years back.

My scouting badges are for the most part on the left - a mix of what the US scouts call merit badges and some other area badges I traded for at my one and only Jamboree. That said, I don't see any badge of my actual jamboree there... hmmm. The rest of the blanket interests me more these days, and actually has more personal relevance, because it tells a story somewhat of the family holidays we went on up to about the time I was ten. The wedge-shaped felt tourism pennants, the subject of ongoing back car seat debates about whose turn it was to get the next one; does anyone make pennants for towns and cities anywhere? I'm going to find out!

As campfire blankets go, this is a pretty modest piece, and as I don't have it with me right now (if indeed it is my blanket, etc - I can see a Kea Scout leader badge and an Oamaru Athletics RFC badge that distinctly point towards it being my brother's) then I might just have to start a new one for Jet Jr. On our recent trip home I collected a few stray badges lurking around nooks and crannies, so I have the beginnings, at least.