Girl Scouts of America

(This photo was taken about 1957-58 in the basement of Norton School in Trenton, Mo. That first Scout on the left is me and the lady standing in the back without the uniform is my mom. She was our leader. Click photo to enlarge.)


About all I remember from Brownies was the uniform, making what they called a "sit upon" and learning how to fold a flag at summer day camp. Girl Scouts, now that's another story.

I went to the weekly meetings and sold those damn cookies just for the privilege of going to overnight camp every summer. ( I sold the most cookies in town two years in a row!) Camp Woodland was in Albany, MO. The first year I stayed a week. Each year there after it was two. I loved it. Sleeping in a tent, outhouses, outdoor showers, campfires.... we really roughed it. (Funny, now I consider a Holiday Inn camping, but I digress.) Horse back riding, crafts, swimming, singing, sports. To a kid growing up in America's heartland, it was wonderful. Those weeks always flew by every year and the memories carried me until it was summer again and time to go back.

When we moved to Ohio I looked forward to Scouting and what the camps there had to offer.... but it wasn't the same. Urban Girl Scouting was very different from the rural version. The meetings were catty and boring. Nothing like what I had come to know and enjoy. The girls were cliquish and snotty. The leader bossy and uncaring. The only productive craft we had done was the Yule Log we made in 8th grade.

I went to over night camp only one time there. First of all the atmosphere wasn't the same. Yes we slept in tents and used outhouses and outdoor showers but it wasn't really "out in the country." It rained most of the week which kept us in our tents and though my tent mates were friendly enough they weren't what I was used to. I "talked funny" and wasn't as cool as they thought they were. To make matters worse, that's where mother nature decided I would begin my very first period and I didn't pack for that event. It was awful and I could hardly wait for the week to end.

After that going to local meetings was a chore I hated more and more. Gawd how I wanted to quit but my mother wouldn't let me. By ninth grade I was determined to escape. The leader lived a block or so away but across the highway. They had a big house and a lot of land including a barn. She planned an overnight camp out in tents in her yard. This was never mentioned to my mother but I did ask to have a friend sleep over that night. When the Friday of the event rolled around I called the Scout Leader and told her I was sick and couldn't sleep outside. I was excused.

That evening my friend and I decided to take a walk, what I did not know was that the Scout Leader saw us. At the next meeting I was informed that if I couldn't participate in all the scouting activities maybe I shouldn't be in Girl Scouts after all. I gleefully went home from the scout meeting that day and told my mother I had been kicked out because I didn't go to the camp out. I never attended another meeting.