Girl Scouts … forever

 

I am saddened by the recent decision to allow girls to become Cub Scouts and for older girls to earn the rank of Eagle Scout. Girl Scouting has been part of my life for nearly sixty years. Even when there was a break in my active participation, between high school graduation and motherhood, I maintained close ties with my sister scouts.

Much has been said about this decision. There is talk of making the organization more inclusive. Go ahead; be inclusive… of all boys. And let the Girl Scouts do the same for girls. There are no opportunities available to girls as part of “Scouts BSA” (really?!) that are not available to them in Girl Scouting. And there is much value in the sisterhood provided within a troop and the larger organization.

GSUSA hasn’t done itself any favors over the years by changing the name of its highest award. What started as the Golden Eaglet became First Class, then Curved Bar, than back to First Class (my era), and in 1980 the highest award in Girl Scouting became the Gold Award. Girls who earn this accomplish every bit as much as boys who earn their Eagle, but they do not receive the same acclaim and prestige. Is the solution, then, to “allow” females to earn the Eagle award? No! The solution is to give the Gold Award winners their due!

This is a personal story of what Girl Scouting has meant to me. It does not pretend to look at the political ramifications of the decision to allow girls to be “Boy Scouts.” My heart broke last week as I heard young girls talk about wanting to be Cubs “like their brothers.”  Being a girl is not inferior to being a boy. Nor is being a Girl Scout inferior to being a Boy Scout. And to rejoice in this decision is to imply otherwise.

This photo and the one on the top left of this page show me with, respectively, Watauga County Brownies and my own little troop when I was in second grade (at that point, girls had to be seven to join). The photo on the top right is of part of my last troop, the one with whom I graduated from high school. We had lunch together with Mrs. Clara Ray, our leader the last several years– God bless her!– six years ago this summer. And just a week ago, five of us were together again as part of a high school gathering. These are my people. My sisters from other mothers.

From the time I was in second grade until I graduated from high school, I was a Girl Scout. I moved through the ranks: Brownie, Junior, Cadette, Senior. Membership in the troop changed, some coming and some going. Some moved into town; some left town. A few were late-comers to the group but were welcomed into our ranks. We all went to school together, often in the same classes. Several of us went to each of the churches in town, so we were in youth groups together. School and church gave us ample time to be with boys. Girl Scouts gave us a bond that continues to grow. It was a part of who we were.

As Brownies, we learned to knit; we made Christmas ornaments from styrofoam and glitter; and we started to camp. Our first ever campout was in the yard of an old farmhouse that was surrounded by apple trees. As luck — and Boone weather– would have it, a thunderstorm arose. Our leaders decided to take us inside the house for safety.  But they didn’t know what I knew: two members of my mother’s family,  a mother and her baby, had died of influenza in that very house! I kind of preferred taking my chances with the trees. (Is it any wonder that camping is still not my favorite thing?!)

I still have my Brownie and Junior uniforms. Not to make it sound like I am a pack-rat, but look what I found recently: I bought this little comb when my Brownie troop went to Tweetsie Railroad, way back when. I’m not sure why I picked this as my souvenir– probably because it was inexpensive! I’m also not sure why I still have it. But I do recall that several of us wore our hair in pig tails that day (seemed appropriate, for some reason) and I was certain that one of the “Indians” was going to whack off my pigtail with his (fake) knife! Okay, so maybe it hasn’t been all fun and games!

As we continued along our scouting path, we started selling cookies door-to-door, in those little cardboard boxes. A box of cookies cost 50 cents then. It was a different time! We continued to camp and to go to day camp every summer. We pitched big, heavy canvas tents– none of those pop-up things available now and certainly no platform tents ready and waiting. And of course, it inevitably rained when we camped. And if you touched the tent, there was a permanent drip from that spot. We chopped our own wood for the fires over which we cooked. It is entirely possible that I scraped the leg of a fellow scout while sawing a piece of wood. (I won’t name the victim, in hopes that she has forgotten. I have not.) We had visits from the Dodo Bird, a wooden figure we hid in each other’s belongings all week until the final evening when a real, live (human-sized) Dodo Bird came to find the unlucky person stuck with it. (The wooden Dodo is in the lap of one of our little girls in a later picture. We are savers, we Girl Scouts.)

We earned badges, tied knots, had bake sales, carried out service projects. But mostly we spent time together. We were developing bonds that continue to this day. We weren’t competing with boys. We were simply a sisterhood. Each of us had other interests and activities, some of them overlapping, some not. We squabbled (Unbeknownst to us, Mrs. Ray kept a detailed journal which included notes about some of our less-than-finer moments!), but that’s what siblings do. Our other lives included boys: in classes, to be sure; church groups; friendships and dating relationships. Some of those boys were also Scouts. We didn’t feel cheated that we did not/ could not belong to their troop.

As we got older, we took trips to the beach together.

We used our bake sale and cookie money to go on a short cruise before we graduated from high school. We were small town girls and it was 1970; most of us had never even flown in an airplane and I don’t think any of us had ever been on a cruise!

Along the way we earned our First Class award (compared to the current Gold Award and, yes, the boys’ Eagle.) 

And then came college and jobs and eventually, for most of us, marriage and children. I personally was not involved in Girl Scouts for more years than I can now imagine. And then I gave birth to my own little Girl Scout.

And five years later, I was back in the organization to stay. We now both are lifetime members of GSUSA. Anna and I have made wonderful memories together. We sold cookies, marched in parades, did all kinds of crafts, earned lots of badges. We took a memorable (even un-fun things are memorable!) day trip for gem mining. Turns out gem mining is not our thing!

We hiked and camped in Lost Sea, Tennessee, crawling in the dark through muddy crevices we could barely squeeze through; we agree that had we known what we were getting into, we would not have done it! But are we proud of ourselves for doing it. Did we grow from that experience? Absolutely. Do we know not to go again? You bet! (Pictures when I find them!)

We took an amazing trip to Our Chalet, one of the world centers of WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) in Switzerland. While there, besides spending time with lots of like-minded (yet different) girls and women, we saw the biggest cows we had ever seen, hiked (and one of us might have fallen down) some steep mountains, ate some amazing cheese and chocolate, dipped our toes in a glacier-fed lake, and so much more. And we grew. As women, as friends, and as mother and daughter.

The summer that Anna turned six, she and I started an adventure that was to last 15 years. We spent one week at Seven Springs Day Camp. That week turned into multiple weeks each summer, ending up with me as the camp’s co-director and Anna as a unit leader. The friendships we forged during that time continue. Below, some of us are gathered to say good-bye to the camp which was closed because of consolidation of councils. 

During the years that I was a troop leader I also became a trainer of other GS leaders. The Girl Scout organization takes leader training seriously. Would-be trainers take part in an intensive three day train-the-trainer session, learning among other things how to work with the adult learner. That training also served me well in my education career as I conducted professional development for other teachers later on.

In addition to helping women learn the basics of program levels, I also wrote most of a four part session that encouraged leaders to guide their troops through science- and math- related badges, and I presented those trainings to hundreds of leaders in our council. I was privileged to go to Edith Macy Conference Center, a world-class facility owned by GSUSA in New York to work with other scouts interested in bringing science and math to girls.

And troop 245 still exists, in some ways, today. The afternoon before we celebrated the 20th anniversary of our high school graduation, many of us got together at Daniel Boone Park. By then, we were scattered across several states. Most of us were married and had become mothers. But once we got together that day, we were still laughing and talking over each other, almost as if our last troop meeting had been just that week. That picnic was now more than 20 years ago! Time really does fly! But when high school friends gather for official reunions or for our now-quarterly lunches, the Girl Scouts still have our own special reunion. Sometimes it is just for a photo or two. But recently we started talking about another beach trip. Wouldn’t that be grand?!

Just last week, Anna texted me: “Today is national s’mores day. We wouldn’t be good Girl Scouts if we didn’t make some.” And, of course, we ARE good Girl Scouts, so here we are!

So back to where I started… I am saddened by the decision to allow girls to become “Boy Scouts” and I am sadder still that some girls, and their parents, seem to think that is better than being a Girl Scout. My sons were both Boy Scouts. One of them earned the Eagle award. I am proud of them both. Am I sorry that my daughter could not be a Cub Scout? No more than I wish the boys could have been Brownies! (although they had to tag along for more meetings than they wanted to!)

Girl Scouting has enriched my life in ways that I have only begun to share. I wish the same friendships, solidarity, growth, exploration, and love for all girls. And for boys, as well, in their own organization. But I believe with all my heart that the experience has been better because it was Girl Scouts.

“Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold. A circle is round, it has no end. That’s how long I will be your friend.”