Remember Sit-Upons?

I was a Brownie for a short period of time when I was a child growing up in Sioux Falls, SD in the late 1960's.  My uniform consisted of a plain brown dress, a felt beanie cap, and a sash with badges I had to earn by accomplishing tasks from my Handbook.  My uniform had been handed down to me after my older sister no longer needed it, but that was fine with me.  I was simply satisfied that I was now big enough to wear this symbol of maturity, and old enough to be part of the Brownie clan. It didn't bother me one little bit that my uniform had been previously worn by my elder sister.  All I wanted to do was shout, "Hey, world!  I'm old enough to become a Brownie, and by golly, a Brownie is who I intend to be, no matter what!"

My friend, Cheryl, and I were both members of this Brownie group.  We used to do everything together, being kindred spirits and all, so becoming Brownies together was a given.  Meetings were held at a neighbor's home near Cheryl's house.  Mrs. Perault was our fearless leader who kindly opened up her home so a number of us girls could gather and learn how to become competent members of society.  Through Mrs. Perault's willingness to lead, our group learned how to become better citizens.  We accomplished this honorable status by learning how to sew buttons on our shirts, help elderly neighbors cross a not-so busy street, and become survival guides in the wilderness should anyone get lost in the woods and need our assistance.

One of the items we needed to make for an up-coming survival session was a 'sit-upon.'   A sit-upon was used to sit yourself on when camping in the wilderness so that your clothing would stay clean and dry while sitting on the ground.  I could hardly believe that I was old enough to be able to go on a camping trip with my fellow brownie  members, let alone make a tool that could be used for my own survival.   I could not wait to begin working on this project to prove I was ready to conquer the world!  My mother took me shopping for the materials needed to put together this project.  We needed to purchase either a vinyl table cloth or vinyl sold by the yard, as the main material for our project.  We also needed newspaper for the padding inside, and yarn to seal the vinyl  closed.  I picked a blue floral pattern table cloth for my sit-upon, and I used green yarn to sew it together.  It was perfect!

The day finally arrived when our group had the privilege of piecing together our material to create our very own sit-upons.  We cut, folded and sewed together our squares until everyone had accomplished their task. At the end of the session, each of us had successfully created a survival tool to use when sitting on wet grass during our camp out to the wilderness.  I was proud of what I had accomplished and could not wait to use my sit-upon on our upcoming adventure!

I am not sure if our first camp out was a day camp or an overnight one, but I do remember the fun we spent outside exploring our world with fellow Brownies and learning how to survive in a wilderness setting.  When free time was over and it was time to gather together formally as a group, each of us proudly presented our hand-made creations.  Carefully, we placed our sit-upons in a circle and sat cross-legged on the ground so we could sing and listen to stories without the slightest fret of getting our clothing wet or dirty from the damp grass.  Just as planned,  there was not one wet bottom among us.  We had accomplished our goal and learned how to survive in the wilderness!   I was a Brownie on the rise and had the dry clothing to prove it!  Take that, damp grass!  I'm a survivor now!