When I was eight and in the fourth grade, I joined the Girl Scouts; didn’t want to join the Brownies because I thought you had to go to camp. Nixed that idea. No sooner had I joined the scouts when it was time to sell the proverbial cookies. Yes, I had eaten them before but had never sold them in my life—till this time came.
Selling them was not at all like today—not in any way, shape or form. I had to go door to door to take orders and worst was the hill on which I lived: It was steeper than steep. After I got all of the orders, I took them with me to the next Girl Scout meeting and gave them to the scout leader. Fast forward a couple of weeks and the cookies arrived—in big cardboard boxes with cardboard handles on them. Each cardboard box had a girl’s name on it as it was her order. I remember that I had about twelve boxes and there was no way I could have carried those up my steep steep hill.
My dad drove me down to the girl scout leader’s room [she used a room in a local church in St. Albans] and he carried out the boxes and brought them and me home! I was so thankful. But the WORST was yet to come! I had to carry several of those boxes together to deliver them and I can still feel the pain I felt as the cardboard handles dug into my hands. After the last delivery, I was so thankful that ordeal was over—till the next year.
Today’s Girl Scouts have no idea what my generation or I had to endure to sell cookies. My hands wouldn’t function right for several days after each time I had to deliver those horrible cardboard boxes with the handles. And just about as bad was all of that walking and going to complete strangers’ houses. In today’s world? No way would any parent let her daughter do that but it was a different time—one that was safe and one that young daughters did what they were told.
Today I know how to order Girl Scout cookies and pick them up. Oh how times have changed and for the better!
Sherry Hill
That reminds me when my youngest granddaughter was selling Girl Scout Cookies. She called one day and said "Hey DooDah, (when ever I answer the phone and hear "Hey DooDah", I figure it's going to cost me.)I'm selling Girl Scout Cookies, and if I sell 125 boxes I get to go on a trip". I said "OK sugar, let me know how many you sell and I'll buy the rest, and write you a check". A few days later I answer the phone and hear"Hey DooDah,(there's that "Hey DooDah again)"I need you to write me a check for $150, for cookies". I said how many boxes did I buy"? She said "fifty". I said "OK". A couple of weeks later her dad called and said "Dave, we're bringing your cookies up". I said, "I don't want the damn things"! He said "what do you want me to do with them"? I said "hell I don't know, give them away, donate them, eat them, do something with them". I just hope my granddaughter had a good time on her trip. I love you my baby granddaughter, Arika!
ReplyDelete