or: From Practical to Sentimental and Back Again – How a Blanket and I Parted Ways

I have one very, very well travelled blanket.

It started its relationship with me on the Gold Coast, Australia when I was about eleven. It was to be my camp blanket for Girl Guides and over the years, my Mum (and then me) sewed on my various badges as they came off my Guide shirt when I achieved the higher ones.

It camped with me around the Gold Coast, joined me on an international camp in Brisbane, a camp with disadvantaged youths south of Brisbane and a trip to Carnarvon Gorge where I spent my 16th birthday as a Junior Leader for the same Guide Group. Great way to spend a birthday in a little piece of paradise.

After this, it went to Venturers, the next step up on the Scouting ladder. I preferred this to the Guide equivalent (Rangers) as it had more outdoor activities. More badges were added.

It then came with me to Armidale for my undergraduate degree and kept me warm through winters on my bed and worn as a poncho while I was studying (Just realized that was six different places!). No more badges.

Onto Sydney where it was great in front of the TV in winter draped over my legs or in front of the computer while I did further education by distance. It moved in Sydney six times, and was involved in keeping me warm for other studies too.

I like to learn and I like to keep warm.

It then came to Hong Kong.

It went into a back cupboard. No studies for quite some time. It moved there  three times before my husband and I split up and it wasn’t used at all. I didn’t know what to do with it so I kept it. It then crossed the Harbour to join me at the Midlevels. It stayed in two locations there without helping me keep warm during more studies before it moved to Tokyo, Japan.

No studies there and no keeping me warm either. It was back in another cupboard before going into storage for two years.

It’s taken me this long to decide to let it go to keep someone else warm.

As I unpicked the badges, I thought about its travels and how it reached this point.

I also thought about my Mum.

I was unpicking all her hard work.

Stitch by tightly sewn, uniformly spaced stitch, each one was a reminder of all she had did for me over this period. Not just sewing on my badges in perfectly matched cotton (it was clear which ones she sewed compared to the ones I’d done!) but even the effort she went to in finding my brother (he has a blanket like this too) and me a fire resistant blanket, cutting a t-shape and trimming it in the middle as a space for our necks so we could wear it as a poncho while it could also lie flat on our sleeping bags and not have a hole; making sure we had enough money to be able to send me to these various camps; sometimes driving me and some others of my group to the campsites; supporting the various pantomimes we put on and Gang Shows I participated in; sewing costumes; buying some biscuits, chocolates and peanut brittle for various fundraisers; helping me to come up with some ideas of what to do with my Patrol during Patrol Time; and teaching me some of the things for the badges too. I will always remember that blood has to be rinsed in cold water thanks to the Laundress Badge though it still annoys me I needed to do that one! Don’t get me started on being taught how to iron for the same thing…. the Scouts didn’t have to do that!

The blanket has now gone to a new home.

I’ve kept the badges.

And the memories.

* Thanks to Imagine Dragons for the title to this post.