Girlscout Campout

[MommaMia]

Wow!  Get ready!  Memories Flashback coming up!

This weekned I'll be chaperoning my 8yo daughter on her first Girlscout Campout!  It seems like just yesterday I was going on my first campout as a Junior Girlscout.  But it was really 26 years ago!!!

I can still remember it well.  It wasn't just a 2 nighter when I first went.  It was 2 whole weeks, which to an 8 year old seemed like an eternity!

I remember...
... getting homesick the first night, crying my heart out.

... loving the Camp General Store and all the penny candy

... swinging on the huge rope swing that flung you off the top of a huge boulder and out into the wilderness.  If you fell, there were stacks of foam pads and old mattresses to break your fall ( Now-a-days this would be liability hazard big time!)

... eating meals in the mess halls.  What was most of that stuff?  I never knew!

... sock hops in the mess hall on Friday night!  Some of us dressed up in poodle skirts (made the poodle shaped apliquess in the craft cabin)and button down sweaters.  Others dressed like boys with jeans and t-shirts with the sleeves rolled up over a fake pack of smokes.  Their hair all slicked back with Dippity Do!  

... sitting on huge logs around the campfire each night as the counselors told stories and played songs on the guitar.

... searching for a flashlight and a buddy to go to the outhouse with in the middle of the night.

... hiking to the showers each afternoon.  I thought it was soooo awkward to have to shower in one big room with a bunch of girls I didn't know.  Apparently, everyone else did too because nobody ever looked up from their feet during the whole shower.

... what an amazing an beautiful sight I thought the Craft Cabin was!  There were soooo many different things to whet my creative appetite with.  Pottery wheels, macaroni art, paints galore.  Tissue paper for making "stained glass bottles" glitter, glue, markers... GOD!  I was in heaven!!


... Most of all, buying stamps to send letters home.  This is one of my favorite memories of all time!  I loved going to the general store and buying my stamps.  It felt like such a grown up thing to buy.  They were valuable!  I'd get the prettiest ones they has and pick out a lovely little package of note paper and traipse back to my cot in our "tent".  You know, the big open canvas kind with the platform floor.  No screens, no doors.  Just musty canvas walls on all sides that could roll up during the day.

No one else wanted to take advantage of "nap time" so I usually had the "tent" all to myself.  Most of the other girls were off doing elective activities in the late afternoon.  

I'd lay there on my sleeping bag with the late afternoon sun streaming past the rolled up canvas sides.  The birds would be chirpping and flitting by and I could hear other campers sqeualing with delight down at the lake.

I don't know what ever happened to those letters to home.  I suspect my Dad still has them stashed away somewhere.  Probably in one of his safety deposit boxes with all the other most valuable and cherished items he has.  Those letters of youth are probably keeping company with pictures from my first day of school, my baby teeth and my first lock of hair.  I just bet you.

Anyway...

I'm excited for this weekend.  My little girl is growing up so fast.  I'm glad she asked me to come with her this weekend.  I'm grateful she's still young enough to want me close by.  Before you know it she'll be all grown up an taking her own little girl on her first  Girlscout campout.  I hope she has as many fond memories of it as I do.

[angelsmom10]

Great weekend (at least around here)... the leaves are turning and temps in low 70's....  Hope you have a great trip.

[iwantapopup]

I'm a camp supervisor for our Girl Scout council and I still get excited anytime I get to go out to camp.  My girls have gone to reisdent camp and I still have all their letters.  My granddaughter who was still 5 at the time went this summer for 3 days and all she could write was I <3 you mom (that was a heart in case you couldn't tell).  She can't spell grandma yet.

Next summer my youngest will be at camp for a month working with the horse program.  It will be a long time to be away from the phone and tv and a/c but the memories she will gain.

I'm teaching troop camp next weekend (15-17) and I can't wait to go!

Have fun on your trip with your daughter!

[PopUpMomma]

Linda,
what council?

I'm a camp supervisor for our Girl Scout council and I still get excited anytime I get to go out to camp.  My girls have gone to reisdent camp and I still have all their letters.  My granddaughter who was still 5 at the time went this summer for 3 days and all she could write was I <3 you mom (that was a heart in case you couldn't tell).  She can't spell grandma yet.

Next summer my youngest will be at camp for a month working with the horse program.  It will be a long time to be away from the phone and tv and a/c but the memories she will gain.

I'm teaching troop camp next weekend (15-17) and I can't wait to go!

Have fun on your trip with your daughter!