Girl Scouts of America

Yes I was a girl scout! It's called Girl Scouts of the USA now. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but back in the late 60s and 70s, I think it was Girl Scouts of America.

It was a big thing when I was growing up and Boy Scouts too. From about 5 or so, as a Brownie until about 8th grade, I'm guessing here, but I think I was a senior girl scout. I loved our meetings, our day trips, our camping weekends, we always had so much fun. Our leaders were wonderful women. I didn't know it then but these awesome women were donating their time, entertaining and teaching us for a couple of hours each week, and then a weekend camping trip each year. I respect them even more now. I kinda remember not so much liking my brownie leader, but I guess having a bunch of screaming 5 year olds girls running around isn't too easy, I'm sure she had to be a bit more stern with us and probably me more! I think I might have even been thrown out of Brownies and rejoined when I was a little older as a junior Girl Scout. I marched in my first parade as a Brownie, getting to hold the flag. Vague memories of of my Girl Scout days.

I know my niece Ashley is a Girl Scout, and only because I've bought the delicious cookies from her. I'll have to ask her what it's like being a Girl Scout now, what they do at their meetings, do they still have camping trips? I don't recall hearing about that from my sister.

Their uniforms have changed too! I guess girls wouldn't been caught wearing the uniforms of my time.




I looked up on line to try and find what kind of badges I earned when I was a Girl Scout.
The list I found was nothing like what I remember!? Women have come a long way just in my life time and so too have Girl Scouts. They earn computer expert badges, money manager, philanthropist, inventor, pets, making friends. I think we had first aid, sewing, cooking, safety. If any of my readers remember some of the badges we earned please remind me!!! But I know for sure we didn't have any of the ones I found in my list here!

We went on camping trips and though we stayed in cabins, we learned how to make our own little BBQ grills. We had to take a coffee can and then I think a smaller can inside, like a tuna fish can, we put cardboard all around the inside of the can, kind of like a circle maze, then melted candles into the cans. The bottom of the coffee can was punched with holes and we put the tuna can on the bottom, lit the cardboard, a little still sticking up over the melted candle, and placed the coffee can over that and cooked our hamburgers on top of the coffee can. I was amazed and what we made.

We also made our own mats to sit on the damp ground around our campfires. We took newspaper and wove it into little rugs and then put garbage bags around to keep the newspaper dry. They were very comfortable. We sang songs, told ghost stories, again just old fashioned fun.

And for any of you who don't know what a true Girl Scout Samoas cookie is (also called Caramel deLites now), you have missed a delicious dessert! A "Somoa" which had to have started in New York because it's "some more", just another one of our words we've blended together. A true "somemore" is first collecting sticks in the woods, really thin on top and long enough so you can toast your marshmallows on the campfire and then you put it on a graham cracker with a piece of Hershey's chocolate and another graham cracker on top. A little sandwich. Way, way, way better than a Girl Scout "Somoas" cookie, sorry but it just can't compare.

My cousin Wendy just told me that she makes them at home now, microwaves a marshmallow on top of the graham cracker and then adds the chocolate and top graham cracker when it's all melted and gooey. Again not as good as getting it toasted on the campfire but not a bad idea.

I remember during one of our camping trips I had learned a trick about sewing someone's PJs to the sheets of the bed. I was all ready to do it but it's hard for me to not have a guilty look on my face, especially when I was younger, I just looked like I was up to something all the time, which I probably was, and was watched very carefully! I think I just fell asleep and ended up losing the needle which I pushed into the mattress to hide.

That little trick was one I remembered in my 20s and used it "down the Jersey Shore" during the years me and my friends were renting summer houses. It was funny watching people rip themselves off the sheets, it did make me laugh but the best really was while I was sewing them to the sheets and laughing hysterical, I don't know how I didn't wake them. I guess maybe a few drinks in them might have had something to do with that!

But the absolute best time I did my sewing magic was to my friend Irene. She came home from a night out "down the Jersey Shore" and fell right out on a mattress that didn't even have sheets or blankets on it, fully dressed. I couldn't sew her to the sheets, what was I to do!? Well I sewed her to the mattress, way better! I sewed the bottom of her jeans to the bottom of the mattress by the thick seam that lines the mattress and then her jeans to the mattress itself, from about her ankles to her knees and I'm sure I laughed myself to sleep that night. I keep laughing out loud right now as I'm writing this! The next morning was the absolutely best and it was probably the last time I sewed anyone to the sheets or mattress, nothing could top this.

Irene woke up screaming, she thought her legs were paralyzed and I came in the room laughing hysterically, I can't control myself sometimes! Irene knew right away by my laughing, she wasn't paralyzed and knew I had something to do with what was going on but still couldn't figure out what I did. A little hung over maybe!?

So thank you Girl Scouts of America (USA?), my sewing badge came in very handy!