Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:
It's Saturday Night again -
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!
Randy Seaver of
Genea-Musing has a new assignment for us:
1) Did you join a
youth organization such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp Fire, Job's Daughters,
for example?
2) Tell us about it in
a blog post of your own, in a comment on this blog, or in a Facebook post.
Actually, this theme I had suggested several months ago and
he acknowledged that.
When we lived in Pittsburg, California, I was in Blue Birds.
I don’t know when I joined, probably in second or third grade. I have no photos
of me during this time, but I do remember wearing the blue uniforms and having
meetings where we did crafts.
When we moved to Walnut Creek during my third grade year, I
didn’t join a group. Perhaps there were no Blue Birds or Campfire in town.
During fifth grade, several of my school friends were in Girl Scouts. I begged
my mother to let me join. I really enjoyed Junior Scouts which I was a member
during 5th and 6th grades. I was also in Cadette Scouts during 7th and 8th
grades. I did not continue after 8th grade. I saw what the 9th grade girls were
doing and it looked like something I was not capable of doing—I was much too
shy to do individual community service.
I enjoyed earning badges. We earned some during our meetings and my mother helped me earn more at home. Here is my sash from Scouting with some of the badges I earned:
In 5th grade we earned a dancing badge and learned several folk dances. We went to a folk festival to perform our dance. My mother made my costume.
What I liked most about scouting was camping. We camped in
6th grade at a Girl Scout camp in Marin county where we slept inside cabins. We
slept on the floor in sleeping bags. I’m sure we must have hiked and cooked and
did crafts.
In 7th and 8th grade, we camped a lot—at least 4 or 5 times
per year. We always slept outdoors under the stars on mats. We always brought
plastic sheets in case it rained, but it never did. We camped on Mt. Diablo a
few times, hiking up on the fire trail while the leaders drove our gear up.
Leaders aren’t allowed to let girls hike alone nowadays.
In the 8th grade, we backpacked. We were to carry 20% of our
weight and since I weighed only 80 pounds, I carried mostly the freeze-dried
food, paper towels, and my own gear. At the end of the year, we were working on
our Emergency Preparedness Challenge, and were told to be prepared for an
unannounced trip. Well, on a day it was supposed to rain, we got the call to
grab our gear and go on a trip up Mt. Diablo. It did rain, and I made a tube
tent out of plastic and rope to keep dry (at least mostly dry). I ate a can of
tuna and a can of peaches for dinner. What fun!
Girl Scouting didn’t end as a child. I was the leader for
both of my daughter’s troops, from Brownies through Cadettes. I also
volunteered at Diablo Day Camp and was a director for 6 years. I volunteered
two years at Two Sentinels Girl Scout Camp, working in the kitchen. Later, I
learned to be a trainer, and trained adult leaders on many subjects.
Copyright © 2019 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.
Ah, I see you didn't do any religious groups. But you didn't do any of the farming groups either. I thought Contra Costa County still had a lot of farmland then!
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed you found your sash so readily. I have no idea where mine is. Somewhere in a box in the garage, I'm sure.
I had written about Girl Scouting before for the Book of Me meme. I remember sharing the dash with my daughter's troop, too.
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