Beyond the Badge: Like Measles - It’s Catching

Updated: Sep 8, 2021

Like Measles - It’s Catching! is a book that I've been trying to track down for years. I first came across it while working one summer at Camp Woolsey, Ottawa’s old Girl Guide camp. I laughed at the odd, almost macabre title and cover art as I put it back on the shelf. The book is small with a yellow softcover, it has two smiling girls sick in bed covered in measles spots. The bed, most likely a hospital bed, is large and metal with a sign tied to the footboard that reads “Like Measles - It’s Catching”. Oddly, the cover art appears to break the 4th wall and have the girls reading the book that they are on the cover of. For all these reasons, the book stuck with me, so I started this blog a few years later and I knew I wanted to cover it.

After hunting around online with little success, I have kindly been gifted a copy from Michelle Jermey who was down-sizing her Guiding collection. Originally a paperback that had been turned into a hardcover for a library, this copy had a few homes before it made its way to Michelle. It has stamps for the Hamilton library and its Barton branches with its check-out log still glued to the back. At some point when it made its way to the Hamilton Guide House at 918 Main Street East, which closed in 2002, the copy then moved to the fifth and last Hamilton Guide House on Queenston Road until its closure in 2014, and that’s when Michelle picked it up. Michelle used to take this hard copy to Guides with her since it was sturdier than her paperback version.

Like Measles - It’s Catching! was written by Anna Gloin and published by the Girl Guides of Canada - Guides du Canada in 1974. A 1978-1979 sales catalog describes the two-dollar book as the chatty diary of the Guides in Canada and written for girls aged 10-12 and could also be used by companies for skits or campfire stories. It's written using stories told to the author by former Guides. One of the highlights of this book is the ink illustrations by Barbara Crocker, which mimics children’s drawings and follows each entry. Words that may be new for the reader are mark with a * and there is a glossary in the back that explains the meaning. The book is very similar to the Dear Canada series and spans the history of Girl Guides in Canada starting in 1910 and ending in 1972. Each entry is dated and ‘written’ by a different youth member with their own unique name and signature. Personally, I would love to know more about the process of coming up with each name and signature style as they do greatly vary. However, I do wish the location of each author was listed under the date to make it clear for readers.

The book takes its name from a paraphrased 1924 Lord Baden-Powell quote, which can also be found on the book’s introduction page.

“The Guide Spirit is difficult to describe in books… it must be like measles - we shall catch it from one another”

The quote was said as part of the first world camp held at Foxlease, an English estate given to the Guides as a training center in 1922 and still operates today. The camp was held from July 16-24, 1924 by WAGGGS or the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and was attended by 1100 girls and women with 600 being from overseas with 40 counties represented. Although the book does have entries from Canadian Guides while overseas it’s interesting to note that it doesn't have an entry on Foxlease to refer to the quote in text.

So why did Baden-Powell compare Guiding to measles? Well, measles is an airborne disease that spreads easily through coughs and sneezes. One article I read said that it's so contagious that if ten people who are not immune were to live together and one is infected, nine of those people will get sick. In its first decade Guiding was growing rapidly popular with girls. Just in Ottawa, where I’m from, the first unit formed at St Luke’s Anglican church in 1912, and by 1913, seven units and the first local Association of Girl Guides was created. So yeah, from a writing perspective this analogy that Baden-Powell used makes sense, it’s just a weird one from a 2021 perspective.

A few months ago, I went to a Zoom lecture on what makes a healthy community and one aspect is a ‘community through time’. The idea is that a community that knows its own story is stronger for it. I think modern Girl Guides does a lot of things really well but I wish there could be more ways to tell our Guiding story and I think a newer version of this book with a title change would be a great start. It has entries about big Guiding events like the world camp at Doe Lake in 1957 and all the different Canadian tours done by Lord and Lady Baden-Powell. The last page folds out and has a timeline of Guiding history made to look like a river where a silverfish (one of Guiding’s highest awards) is swimming up. I really enjoyed reading Like Measles - It’s Catching. I think when it came out it was a fun way and easy way to share Guiding history and now it’s a wonderful fun addition to any Guiding collection.

Special Thanks to Michelle for her copy of Like Measles - It’s Catching

Thanks for reading - Em

B-P Said

In the 1990s a campfire song was written by Mary Hatcher in Alberta using this book to help share the history of guiding at large events and I wanted to share it in case others were interested. The song was copyrighted in 1994 by Girl Guides of Canada but may be copied and used by members within Guiding.

1. In nineteen ten it came to us, this great game that we play.

It started in St. Cath’rines on a cold November day.

Miss Wylie was our first Captain, and she showed us the way;

And we’re growing bigger every day!

Chorus

B-P said, “Like measles, it’s catching.” You should see us grow! (3x)

And we’re growing bigger every day!

2. Before long other companies were formed in Canada.

By nineteen ten they were in Winnipeg and Moose Jaw.

In two years the Rockies were crossed to Vancouver, Victoria;