Girl Scout Shoes (Part 2)

As I was saying in my previous post, I went to that first Girl Scout Troop meeting when I was in the 6th grade and met someone who would be so very influential to my life, and her name was "Scooter".  I never was quite sure how her nickname came to be, but that was the name she was known by. She told us many times that her actual name was "Margaret Ethel Gertrude Allen Bowes", which sounds like a lot of names, but made sense because she was raised Catholic and got an extra name somewhere along the way.  It will not be possible for me to tell you in so many words what she was like, but I will give you some idea.  She was a plain-faced lady, somewhat "round" with long dark, gray-streaked hair pulled back into a pony-tail.  I was to find out she had been a widow for a few years and had three children - a daughter who was several years older than me, a son just a couple of years younger than that, and another daughter the age of my younger sister.

She loved her Girl Scouts.  This was her second troop, having had a troop with her older daughter until she was out of high school, and not wanting to wait until her younger daughter was old enough to start another.  (Later she did have a troop her daughter's age, and my sister, Sharon was in it).

I was to find that she was the strictest adult female I might ever know, but yet the kindest, caring lady I could ever want to know.  Scooter found so many activities and events to involve us in, that I think it kept me so busy, I couldn't get into much trouble.  She took us to scout camp every year in late fall, and spring, and to summer scout camp in the summer.  She gave us responsibilities and expected us to live up to them.  We were girls, who worked through all the hospitality, cooking, sewing, and housekeeping badges, yet we learned how to build a fire and cook over it, tie all the necessary knots, and even dig a latrine.    

 

She took us to  scouting conventions and camp-outs in other areas and states, with as many as we could cram into her little Chevrolet Impala. I think we could get about 10-12 girls in that car, plus Scooter.  I would go over to her house and sit in a chair next to her reclining rocker, and we would go over badges that I might could earn, and she would encourage me to go home and work on each one.

Many things I know today about taking responsibility, being the best that I can be and leadership came from that "season" in my life. She taught me that I could be a lady, and appreciate my role as a wife and mother, yet be independent and tough when it was called for.  I am thankful for this wonderful lady and her influence on my life.  I don't know where she is now, whether still on this earth, or gone on to be with the Lord, but I will always love her immensely. 


Song (but I can't tell you what the tune is...just make one up):

"We are the girls of the Girl Scout chorus, Scooter paid a fortune for us,

           Each of us has been to charm school, each of us will catch some darn fool,

That's why they call us the all-time cuties, otherwise known as the Scooter's beauties,

           We are the stars of the Girl Scout show, and this is all we know"

      or something like that!


A few more Girl Scout moments to tell you about later, including Girl Scout of the Year.........