Happy Birthday Girl Scouts

Okay, I know. I'm one day late. Yesterday was busy so I didn't get this blog post written then. Happy Birthday to the Girl Scouts. March is also Women's History month, so that's another good reason to blog about the Girl Scouts. Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low assembled 12 girls as the first girl scout meeting on March 12, 1912. (credit to the Girl Scout site for this info) Now 102 years later we are still enjoying their cookies and girl scouts number over 3 million in this country.

Were you a girl scout (or boy scout)? I was. In fact I have a (bad) photo of me when I was in Girl Scouts, at a Girl Scout camp, eating.

UGG...Isn't that the worst? Awkward preteen years, eating and at camp.

So what I remember from Girl Scouts: It was a great time to meet friends and learn new skills. There were badges for different skills: camping, babysitting, cooking, etc. And yes, I sold cookies. But apparently not how they sell them now. I went door-to-door all over town, with my pamphlet with the pictures of the cookies in the cold (about February). People wrote down how many they wanted of each kind, their name and address. About a month later, the cookies arrived to the local cookie chairperson (one year this was my mom, so a truckload of cookies arrived at our house for the whole town). Each Girl Scout picked up her cookies from the cookie chairperson and delivered them and collected money to the people that ordered them. I remember them costing around $2 per box. My favorite were the sugar cookies, when they actually had SUGAR on them. They went to shortbread cookies with less sugar. My second favorite were the mint, thankfully they haven't changed that one. Did you know there is more than one cookie bakery for the Girl Scouts? There looks like two now, Little Brownie Bakers and another one.

I remember several Girl Scout camps; most of them my mom was also along for one reason or another. She helped with Girl Scouts for years when I was involved. We slept in a tent in our sleeping bags, used toilets that didn't flush, and had fun. It was a bit of "roughing it" for the early 1980's. Some Girl Scout retreats were held inside a big auditorium or gym on a weekend, and we'd sleep in sleeping bags on the floor. The adults would have cots instead of just the floor, which is good as if I am a Girl Scout sponsor when my daughter is old enough I will want the cot. There were less rules then; squeeze 5 girls on a bench seat in the back of the car, and no one mentioned it not being safe. If everyone fit, we went.

I truly believe Girl Scouts helped girls to learn important things like managing money, being responsible, as well as cooking, changing a diaper, sewing, crafts, etc. I hope they are continuing to teach these things that girls should learn.

Feel free to comment about your Girl Scout experience below. Perhaps there is something I forgot to mention.