There are times when I look back to my Boyhood days and I just shake my head at all the crazy, silly and embarrassing things I did.
Like all the asinine things I did when the Girls Brigade were around. See, there was this time when the Girls Brigade Company next door would come over for joint meetings. So, of course, Boys being Boys, we’d sit up straighter and sing with more “manly” voices during worship. However, suffering through the travails of puberty makes things more difficult. For example, when you’re singing “Give Thanks” as “manly” as you can, you reach the chorus and go, “And nooooowwwwwwuuhrrggarragghh…” It’s worse when you’re singing loudly to impress the girls with your vocal talent (evident only to yourself, apparently). It’s far, far worse when you’re leading worship. With a microphone. Amplified all over the hall. Stupid voice-breaking-during-puberty!
Of course, there those really moments of grand delusions when I thought it was pretty cool to be able to walk around in half-uniform around the church or school (or wherever the Company met). Oh come on, you guys think so, too. It feels pretty macho to walk around in military boots, hearing the “clack-clack-clack” of metal horseshoes. Nothing makes you feel more manly than wearing a shiny belt, shiny boots (boots, mind you, not mere shoes!). And when the girls ask you why you’re wearing what you’re wearing… ah, your chest rises and with a deep, drill-commander’s voice, you answer, “It’s part of my uniform.” Girls like men in uniform… so they say.
Or when I was younger, more foolish and at the age where promotions were supposed to be just around the corner… so I started “behaving” more like an NCO. The only problem with that (as my friends angrily reminded me), was that I was not an NCO yet. Oh, don’t pretend. You know what I’m talking about. You start volunteering for every little assignment the Officer dishes out (“Who wants to clean the toilet bowls of the
The other very “BB” thing I did was to collect all the paraphernalia BBM had to offer. I had BB pens, BB pencils, BB caps, BB T-Shirts (not the free ones, mind you! I paid for these!), BB Buttonholes. Then of course, there were BB socks, BB shoes, BB umbrellas, and all the little BB iron-on crests that were available. Heck… if they had BB underpants, I think I would have bought it (Stop laughing… it was an idea my friends and I actually talked about. Nevermind where we thought the Anchor should be placed).
It was BB mania. Utterly, thoroughly crazy-over-BB mania.
The scary thing about BB mania is that it doesn’t really end. It’s like an incurable disease. One would assume that BB mania would end once you step out of your Blues. Let me tell you it doesn’t.
I know people who still wear their button-hole badges (Those little anchor pins, if you don’t know what I’m talking about) wherever they go. In fact, I confess I once wore it to a dinner and someone actually asked me about it. It felt good explaining with great enthusiasm what the BB was all about… until he said, “Oh, so it’s just like the Scouts?” (Fortunately, I couldn’t reach over to the pair of chopsticks and jab him with it). There are Officers I know who will actually wear the BB ties (Those navy blue ties with Anchors all over them from the 1970s) to other occasions. I even know Officers who actually take banners from BB events (Oh, let’s say a BB concert) and hang them up in their homes as decoration! There are even those Officers who wear their Uniform on their wedding day! And now that we’re starting to celebrate Founder’s Day Babies (as I noticed through the MyBBKul website last October), I won’t be surprised to see Officers trying to get their children born on October 4th (“C’mon honey, push! Push harder! Faster, faster… it’s going to be October 5th already! Hurry up… or I’ll punish you with 20 push-ups!”).
Sill, there’s something to be said about BB mania. BB mania is a symptom of something deeper than all the crazy things we did for, with and in the Boys Brigade. Of course, there are always those in the Brigade who really are just crazy fanatics. But those aren’t the ones I’m talking about.
I’m talking about those who have been infected with a BB mania that is the evidence of a passion for something out of this world. It is an almost delirious fervor for young people – in the city, in the country and across the world – to know the Anchor of our souls. It’s the passion that drives an officer to be strict in drill, not because he wants his Boys to win drill competitions (although that is always nice!), but so that they will become disciplined people – ready to take on a world that is getting tougher every day. It’s all those little insane things that we do so that young people will grow in “wisdom and stature, in favor with God and men.”
BB mania is the story of a Mighty Band of Brothers (and Sisters) spread throughout the world. We have discovered, together, that we have an Anchor for our souls. We are Sure and we are Steadfast. We have been around for more than 120 years. And we’re crazy over the Anchor.
This article is dedicated to all the Officers who,
through their BB mania,
inspired me to get hooked on this ministry,
and had my life changed for the better because of it.
Wong Giok Leigh is currently suffering from BB-mania withdrawal symptoms in the USA, while he pursues his Master’s Degree. His only relief comes from the feedback and comments you send him at this blog. In the meantime, he’ll keep writing these silly little articles to amuse himself and sate his BB mania.
Originally published: 13 January 2004
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