If you’re like me and you grew up in a small town in America, odds are, you were a Girl Scout. Being one for about twelve years, I have my fair share of memories from this lovely time of my life. The GS moms and dads would plan adventures, make fun snacks, and teach us all sorts of things. When I came to college, I realized that tons of my friends were also former Girl Scouts who shared a lot of the same experiences that I did. So, if you care to take a walk down memory lane, grab your Thin Mints and keep reading!
1. Vest v. Sash
People would end up fighting or getting way too committed to one style or the other. (But, let's be real... vests were the way to go because you didn't have to worry about them falling off when you were running around.)
2. Sleepovers in cool places
Personal favorites included Museum of Science and the zoo. How many people can say they slept over in these places.
3. Encampment
Cooking over a fire you made with your fire starters, using your mess-kits and sit-upons, driving the mothers who volunteered to come with you insane with your antics and unbelievable energy because no one could tell you to use your "indoor voice"... ahhhh, the memories.
4. Endless crafting
Whether you were making pins or cards for people or something creative out of string, Girl Scout leaders always had some reason for washable markers, glue, and clorox wipes.
5. Cooking over the a fire
S'mores, pancakes, doughboys, and more. My personal favorite part was definitely being a little too adventurous and the moms having to step in and save the day before we burned everything to a crisp. Grab your bandanas and roll up your sleeves!
6. Outdoor cookie sales
This definitely had the potential to be fun, especially if you had a beautiful sunny day. But I think my most prominent memories of selling cookies outside were the times I felt like I would lose my fingers to frost bite, but was having fun anyways being with my troop.
7. Girl Scout Camp in the summer
If you were lucky enough to adventure to one of these crazy places, you definitely have lots of memories of your time there. Songs, activities, outdoors, the one random male counselor that made all of your friends confused, bonding, and new friends.
8. Going through the book to see what badges you wanted to earn next
Personally, I can remember wanting to get the ones that were the prettiest. Being the girl with the most badges at the meeting always felt pretty cool, too.
9. Trying to decide what you’d do for your Gold Award
Here's a nice throwback pic of me and my family the day I got my Gold Award. Trust me, completing a project that took over 120 hours was hard enough, but deciding what to do and getting the process started is arguably the hardest part. If you stayed in Girl Scouts until HS, odds are you definitely remember being asked time and time again if you were going for the Gold.
10. New cookie flavors coming out
As a girl who loves her snacks, I was always thrilled when the cookie mom of my troop would come in saying that they put out a new flavor for the season - especially if she had a box for us to try.
11. Trying to sell the most cookies in your troop
Door to door, booth sales, teachers, having parents take it to work, family members, the mailman, literally any way you could sell cookies to get those cool prizes they gave out, you probably tried.
12. The songs
"A circle's round, it has no end, that's how long I want to be your friend". "Then I bought some bubble gum, bazooka, zooka, bubble gum." "The princess pat, lived in a tree." "THIS IS A REPEAT AFTER ME SONG! THIS IS A DO AS I DO SONG!"
So, there you have it! I hope these twelve memories helped you reminisce fondly about your days a scout. And, even if you weren’t one, at least made you want some Girl Scout cookies really badly.
