I was, for eight years involved with Girl Scouts, on many
levels – from leader to council delegate.
It was a fun and interesting learning experience for me and, I think,
for the girls in both daughters’ troops.
I was troop leader for my youngest daughter and once a week, after
school, a dozen or so first
Girl Scout Promise
On my honor, I will try:
To serve God and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout
Law.
One of the many things I learned – Brownies (at that time,
first grade to third grade) – could do anything. For instance – the girls decided we needed a troop
flag or banner. Each girl drew a picture
of what she thought it should look like, my co-leader and I winnowed the stack
down to 5 and the 
Another time we decided to make Vagabond Stoves and Buddy
Burners and then, treat their fathers to lunch cooked at the park. The girls each made her own stove and burner while
we supervised and helped with some of the more difficult aspects of turning a
large tin can into a stove and a tuna can into a burner. Then, each girl had to learn how to light the
burner with a match (question: what do we
do first? Answer: we tie our hair back
with a scarf). Then, they had to
decide what they were going to cook and we practiced that. Picnic day arrived. Fathers and Brownies met at my house and we
hiked to the park with the girls carrying their stoves filled with the burner
and whatever else was needed (spatula, salt, buns). I brought a cooler with meat, drinks, etc. The girls all pulled out scarves, tied back
hair and cooked their father lunch. I
mean, impressed the pants off those fathers!
At fourth grade, during the Fly-Up Ceremony, Brownies became
Junior Girl Scouts. As Junior Scouts,
they were eligible to go camping. Now, I
wasn’t a leader for my older daughter’s troop however, I was a full-time camp
mom. That meant – I got to go camping
with two different troops of 4th-6th grade girls six
times a year for 4 years. And, may I say
– it was a very involved process.
Everyone just didn’t jump in the car and off we went. No-no.
Everything had to be planned from meals to activities and the girls were
involved every step. And, as much as the
idea of sleeping in a tent in the woods alarmed me (the city person) back then, it was a great time.
We actually only had one seriously frightening event. Ok, so first of all, back then – Girl Scouts
slept in 4-person, floored tents. The
tent sides could be rolled up and, seems to me, the tents had wood roofs. Each tent had four cots and the floor was
raised two feet off the ground. There
was a common eating and cooking area (that is cooking over a fire – no stoves). In 1978, Troop 2209 (my older daughters troop)
was going for their first campout in tents.
Quick
note here – in the summer of 1977, three Girl Scouts in Oklahoma, while
camping, had been asleep and were dragged out of their tent and murdered. It was a terrible thing. And, we were very aware, for that first
campout.
So, we got to camp, unpacked, set up, cooked, cleaned, explored,
sang taps and went to bed. Riiighhht –
sleeping in a tent with the sides rolled up in the woods along with the lions,
tigers and bears. I had just laid down
in my cot (yes, fully dressed and shod) thinking I might doze a bit when, all
of a sudden, there was a scream.
No no stop stop
Each adult hit the ground running, checking on girls in the
tents around us. Come to find out, one
of the girls had a nightmare and while her tentmates were awaken, none of the others
were. But, for me, that was the last
time I even thought about sleeping in a tent during a campout. I found that I could go from Friday afternoon
until Sunday morning with no sleep. Not
a problem.
I learned a lot during those years and may share more, from
time to time.
Take care.
No comments:
Post a Comment