I, too, was in the St John brigade here in NZ....for a total of nine years....3 of which I was 'Divisional Manager' for a youth division. This meant I was supposedly in charge of hapless young folk and able to get them to stand on parade 'counting the floorboards' if I felt like a power trip. I was on the inaugural First Aid Unit course, in Hamilton. Which meant they thought I was good enough for First Response on a mobile first aid unit which could second as an ambulance in emergency. I believe that this status may well have changed since I left St J 4 years ago. Weeks spent rolling and unrolling bandages, lifting and scooping folks up..... Said new mobile unit sported a few 'dings' by the time it had been out on a few public duties, as most of us had never driven a van before. It's not only young kids that get a kick out of mock accidents...when I was in the adult division, I think there were at least half a dozen of the division who seemed to think the accident was real and took weeks to de-brief. :o| When I was a youngster living in Scotland in the 70's I had to join Red Cross, as you had to be really special to join St John - no idea why I couldn't, and I was rather disappointed. I loved playing with the triangular bandages, and devising new uses for them. And I grew quite proud of my skills with roller bandages, bandaging everything I could get my hands on to practice at home. (Sorry, baby brother!) This habit must have been passed on to my kids, as I remember our poor dogs being in various stages of bandaging at different times! No fancy machine to roll bandages though. Had to roll them along my thigh, as there were so many and to do it with my hands was too darn slow! Managed to con my kids into joining up - backfired a bit....do you have ANY idea how big a knot a pile of roller bandages can get into when stuffed into a heap under the bed because a kid can't be bothered to roll them up?????? On the plus side, I am confident all three of my children could save a life with CPR - and could have done rescue breathing and called for help, from 5 yrs of age...something which I am passionate about, with the amount of heart disease in my family. I believe EVERYONE should know basic first aid and CPR. Carole -----Original Message----- From: LenDenham@aol.com [mailto:LenDenham@aol.com] Sent: Friday, 4 February 2005 6:00 a.m. To: ENG-BANBURY-AREA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [BAN] Re: Memories of the 50s Must be something about St John Ambulance Brigade. That is at least three of us, albeit Joe's tenure was rather shorter than mine! Len