ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF GIRL SCOUTING

March 12^th this year marks the centennial of the founding of the Girls Scouts in America.  Organized by Juliette Low on her return from meeting Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts, it was first called the Girl Guides of America.  What started with eighteen girls now has a membership of over two million scouts.

 

Vintage uniforms

I’ve little association with scouting these days, except for buying my Thin Mints each year, so I had to do a bit of on-line research.  My, how scouting has changed – and all for the better. Brownies, Girl Scouts and Senior Scouts  - I was a Girl Scout and a Mariner Scout – have expanded so that younger girls can join as Daisies and older girls can stay on as Ambassadors. 

I must say that I am less than pleased with the change in the Girl Scout oath.  As I recall it, it was (and you can correct me on this!) “On my honor, I will try to do my duty to God and my country, to help other people at all times, and to obey the Girl Scout laws.”  In researching to try to verify this I found numerous variation between then and now. Now they’ve got a differently worded “promise” – no more oath! - along with laws I never heard of, a slogan and a motto, “Be Prepared,” that they lifted from the Boy Scouts. I don’t remember a motto, do you?  Well, all this is beside the point because today’s scouts won’t know the difference.

Girl Scout headquarters was first in Savannah, then Washington, D.C., and then, finally, moved to New York City in 1916.  In 1956, new land for a bigger headquarters was purchased on Third Avenue, and in November 1957 the new building was dedicated – and that’s where my bit of history took place. Several troops from the area – New York, New Jersey and Connecticut – were asked to select representatives to take part in the opening ceremonies.  I was chosen from my Mariner Scout Troop.  What an honor.  My role, as I remember it, was to carry in the flame, represented by a miniature cauldron filled with smoking dry ice, for the new “hearth”. 

My first (and last!) Photo Op

We had to travel into the city for practice several times, and one afternoon we were entertained at tea at the home of Irving Berlin.  I do remember a beautiful apartment and, of course, the grand piano. The Berlins were great supporters of scouting.  Did you know that the royalties from Berlin’s God Bless America go to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts? He set up a foundation to take care of it all.

Moving right along, after the ceremonies, some of us scouts went into the new shop.  I bought two embroidered Mariner Scout patches.  On the way out of the shop we ran into and started chatting with the Governor of New York, Averill Harriman, and I gave him one on my patches.  Some handy photographer saw a photo op in that, (did they call them photo ops back then?) and set up a picture with me giving him the patch. It was my 15 minutes of fame. The picture Averill Harriman and me, and a bevy of other scouts, appeared the next day on the front page of the second section of the New York Times. Averill Harriman always made the news.  I was thrilled! One of my teachers got a copy of the picture from the Times and sent it to the governor’s office in Albany and had it signed.  I did keep a photocopy of the picture, but I long ago I did one of those swaps from Yankee magazine and traded the original picture and my Girl Scout badges and pins for a neat-o horse collar and bell.  I’ve still got that hanging in my kitchen.

We used to hand these out to folks who bought our cookies.
 They could post them on their doors to warn off other sellers! 
That's a vintage Fifties uniform.

Speaking, as I was, of those Thin Mints, cookie sales start this month. In the 50’s, when I sold them door-to-door, cookies cost 40 cents a box – now it is around $4. The cost is based on the needs of the girls and troops in the area, so I can’t really complain about the increase – what cookies could I get for 40 cents these days?  Not any! Today, very enterprising scouts set up shop outside many local Lowe’s Home Improvement stores, Walmarts, and other places where the flow of shoppers is fairly steady. Be on the lookout for them and support our local Girl Scouts, and wish them Happy Birthday too.