For some odd reason (does there need to be a reason for an odd thought?), I was thinking about being a Girl Scout this morning on the train on my way to work. I was a Girl Scout for over 11 years. And most of them were very good.



I started at 7 as a Brownie. I remember we had meetings on Tuesdays after school and we got to wear our uniforms to school on Tuesdays. I LOVED my uniform. It was a brown dress with a dark brown beanie with a little brownie on it in orange. We got a gold pin with a brownie on it,too. It was a time to learn to be part of a whole, a troop. We learned to work together and have fun and help out. We sang the Brownie Song



I've got something in my pocket that belongs across my face

I keep it very close to me in a most convenient place

I bet you could not guess it if you guessed a long long while

I'll take it out and put it on,

It's a great big Brownie smile!



Funny the things that stick in your brain. After two years we had a "flying up" ceremony. We were given a pair of wings to wear on our new green sash. We got a new Girl Scout pin and moved into a Junior troop. We got new uniforms, in green this time and got to work on badges which were sewn onto the sash. I loved it. I still have my badges. They are sewn onto a windbreaker that I wore to death. As a Junior, we learned to be members of a patrol. There were leaders and white gloves were involved.(The horror of trying to keep white gloves clean!) It was a place to stretch yourself and learn new things. And of course, we sold cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. For a sense of how long ago it was, the cookies were 35 cents a box when I started. (They are now 3.50 a box US). I learned that I LOVED camping and wanted to go as often as I could.



After 3 years as a Junior, you graduated into a Cadette troop. Things were the same, but more. I learned new skills and collected new badges. We took trips and learned to canoe and to swim and to save someone from drowning. I remember being in a canoe in the middle of a cold lake and having to swamp the canoe, take off my jeans while treading water (because the fabric is heavy and will weigh you down) and swim back to the canoe and try to right it and get back in. If you couldn't get back in, you swam to shore with your shoes tied around your neck and hoped like heck that someone found your jeans floating around in the lake. No one wanted to have to go home and explain why they lost their pants in the lake! I wore really old ones so I wouldn't get in too much trouble.



And then two years later I became a Senior. This was where we were expected to take on some additional responsibilities of the running of the troop. The troop became very very small. As girls got older, it became very dorky to be a Girl Scout. Problem was, I still liked going camping and my family were not campers. I became a Program Assistant and went camping with Brownie and Junior troops to help out the leaders. I had a binder filled with craft ideas (like twig boats with little candles we could launch after dark) and songs for around the campfires at night. Everyone loved the campfires and singing (and smores). I would leave on a Friday afternoon and return on Sunday, wash my clothes, repack my duffel and be ready to go the following Friday. I developed a reputation as being a good person to take camping with your troop and leaders were calling months in advance to snag me. It was great. I loved the camp. Inawendawin. It was supposedly a Native American word for Friend. I never looked it up but I never doubted it. I made some good friends there and had some of the best times ever.



I left the Girl Scouts after a disagreement with a leader over a trivial matter and it was probably time for me to go anyway. I left with my fond memories intact. My daughters never expressed an interest in being Girl Scouts and I didn't push them.



I'm not sure why I thought of this today. Like I said, it was an odd thought on the train. Snatches of campfire songs are playing in my head and they make me smile. Not a bad way to start a day.



We welcome you

to our camp so fair

And greet you with

Hospitality rare.......



Here's a wikipedia link to modern Girl Scout levels and such. It's changed quite a bit.