In the late 60s and early 70s in Santa Monica, California, Rose joined the throng of girls in her class who were becoming Girl Scouts. She
was only a Girl Scout for a short time, a Junior for two years and then a Cadet
for a while. She has also led a Girl Scout troop of her own. Both her sisters
are past Girl Scouts and her grandmother helped lead her sisters' troops and
Rose’s daughters troops.
When Rose was a Girl Scout, her leader was called Mrs. W., and she was a character. Rose’s troop was huge, comprising of around 28 girls.
Rose has many memories from her time with this troop of girls.
She remembers that whenever they used to travel through a
specific tunnel in Santa Monica, they would lift their arms to “keep the bus
up.” Rose still does this tradition with her kids, whenever they go under a
tunnel they stick their arms up “to hold up" the roof of the car.
As she and her troop traveled, they also sang lots of Girl
Scout songs, one of them was Make New Friends (the song I quote at the top of my blog), another was Sailing Over the Water. The song that
she most remembers is Rose, Rose, Rose Red. Rose hated this song because she always felt that the other girls were
talking about her and asking her when she would get married. Most of the songs
her troop sang were sung in rounds.
After they had sung the songs and passed the tunnel, they
would reach their destination of a campsite or Girl Scout summer camp. They
would travel to the main encampment and a few Girl Scout Houses. There was also
a big encampment in Inglewood that they used to visit.
Rose remembers that there used to be a local cat shelter
in Santa Monica. Her troop used to get their community
service hours spraying down and cleaning the cages at the shelter.
Rose’s troop also did a lot of crafts. She remembers making
a yarn doll and tying scores of knots (many of which she is still able to do
today). Her leader was also a fan of something called
“liquid embroidery” (tri-chem) so they did a lot of that too.
Her troop didn’t really earn many badges since badges back then
were more work than they are now. But, they did do quite a few bake-offs, which
she still has the ribbons from.
Back then, girls didn’t get to do as much as they do now or
go as many places as they can now. There were no Journeys back then, and the
badges were much different. Rose thinks the badges have been “dumbed down”
since a person used to have to do way more steps to earn a badge.
Rose still has her uniform, all her badges, her mess kit,
her silverware kit, her hat, her canteen, knife, compass and a scrapbook. The
scrapbook was made by her grandmother for her sister, and it also houses many of
Rose’s memories.
Because of Girl Scouts, Rose is much more family oriented
and independent. Being a leader has helped her do things she otherwise might
never have done in her lifetime, like taking on the product chair, handling the cookie
money and leading her troop.
Girl Scouts has taught her not just to think for herself, but
to think bigger. It teaches girls that they can do more then they can think
they do, that anything is possible.
Rose and her troop are heading towards a bright tomorrow, and
have plans to help feed the hungry and go on bigger trips with bigger plans.
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