One hundred years ago, Juliette Gordon Low of Savannah, Ga., was so impressed with the new Boy Scouts organization that she decided to begin one focused on girls. Today, more than 3.2 million girls and adults in 90 countries are members, and nearly 60 million women in the United States are Girl Scout alumnae. I am one of the alumnae.
I didn’t start out in Girl Scouting as a small child as my granddaughter, Jenna, has done. I wasn’t a Daisy. In fact, it wasn’t until I was in high school that I joined Senior Girl Scout Troop 6 in Brookfield.
We met once a week at the home of our leader, Barbara Walker, the wife of Congregational Church pastor Edward Walker. Their house, located to the left of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, became one of my favorite places during my four years of high school.
That house, after falling into disrepair over the years, has been replaced by a new one, but my memories of the good times we had in the Walker home have not changed.
We learned so many things in those weekly sessions, earning badges for our endeavors. But that is not all we learned there. We learned to have confidence in ourselves and to have the courage to try new things and accept new ideas. Most of all Scouting helped build our characters; it helped us become the people we are today. It taught us to work as a team for a common goal as well as take on individual projects of our own.
We learned to set goals. One of the things we most wanted to do was to visit Washington, D.C. To make it possible financially for everyone in the troop to go, we held bake sales and enlisted the local Explorer Boy Scouts to join us in a variety show. I sang in the chorus and played two piano solos while other members of the two troops played other musical instruments or acted out skits. It was fun, and it helped raise funds for our trip.
We later gave a thank you party at St. Paul’s parish hall for the Explorers for helping out and taking part in the show. We played games and had refreshments, and even our leaders, Mrs. Walker and Cole Bradley, seemed to have a good time.
We also helped with community service projects, such as serving refreshments at Red Cross bloodmobiles and other local activities. It was an early look for us to see the many ways individuals can volunteer to help their town. I like to think that my involvement with Girl Scouts led to my later service on boards and commissions in Brookfield and 10 years as a 4-H leader.
The trip to Washington, D.C., in 1955 was a dream come true for me. I have always been interested in government and politics, and I was thrilled to see the Capitol building, where we had our photograph taken on the steps with one of our Connecticut senators. We stayed at a Girl Scout facility in Virginia and went into Washington every day and at night to see all the buildings lighted. We visited the White House, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, Washington Cathedral, Jefferson and Lincoln memorials and the Smithsonian and climbed the Washington Monument. My favorite was the Lincoln Memorial, and I think I have read almost every book written about President Lincoln.
The cathedral was lovely, but it was still under some construction in 1955. It is now undergoing repairs following last year’s earthquake that caused damage to it. It is expected that its repairs could take several years.
We even got lost around the Pentagon. No matter what street we drove down, it seemed like we ended up by it. Finally, Mrs. Walker stopped the car and asked a man in an Army uniform, apparently an officer, for directions. Those of us in the three cars looked on as he pointed out the correct route for us to finally get away from the building.
Another day we visited Arlington National Cemetery and saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. My uncle had been killed in the Pacific in World War II. I could not remember him, but I do remember how sad I felt as I stood in front of the Lee Mansion and looked out at a sea of white headstones for those lost to war. We also visited the Marine Corps’ Iwo Jima Memorial located near Arlington.
We visited Mount Vernon and saw the burial place of George and Martha Washington. Though the rooms in the house were interesting, what I remember the most was the gardens. They were so beautiful and well cared for. Everything was so authentic that you almost felt that you could turn a corner and see President Washington.
That trip was the highlight of my Girl Scout years, but there was much more fun ahead of us. One summer we had a campout at Mt. Tom. We spent a weekend sleeping in sleeping bags or tents, cooking over an open fire, and swimming in the lake. We hiked to the top of the mountain, where we admired the scenery from the observation tower. We also had sleepovers at the Walkers’ home.
Looking back, I am amazed that they had all of us overnight and wonder if they got any sleep at all. I know most of us didn’t.
We did several hikes around Brookfield, down Route 133 near the railroad overpass or through the Iron Works, where we checked out a tunnel that ran under Route 25 to the river and the railroad station that was still in operation at that time. Today that building is part of the Brookfield Craft Center.
Another fun trip took place in 1956, when we stayed at a Girl Scout camp outside of Boston. During the evenings we would play games and cards. In the daytime, we saw the city from the top of the John Hancock building, spent time near the ocean, where we saw old ships, and visited Boston Common, the Capitol building, Paul Revere’s home, Old North Church, and many other interesting places.
After Boston, we stopped in Lexington and Concord, where we saw the minuteman statues, and in Salem we toured the Witch House and House of Seven Gables.
I remember only good times during my four years as a Senior Girl Scout. We learned a lot about ourselves, our country, and about citizenship, and we had a wonderful time doing it while having a wonderful time.
I’ll never forget Mrs. Walker and the Girl Scouts in my troop.
Congratulations, Girl Scouts, on your 100th year. Keep up the good work.
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