I wish I would have been a Girl Scout...

     We all have regrets in life. There are some we can do something about, like take that long-postponed trip to Madrid, or make amends with a family member, or tip waitresses better. (I just had to throw that in.)

     I loved my mother, but she never enrolled me in Brownies or Girl Scouts. Alas, it's too late to do anything about my yearning to be part of a troop of girls in green. For those who might have just come to America, first you would be called a brownie, and wear a brown outfit, tailored looking and snappy. Next, you became a Girl Scout and wore green, bright and noticeable.

 Perhaps there are more advanced levels involving other colored outfits, but my interest would have been when I was a little girl. I  wanted to part of the team of girls who were doing something to make the world a better place. What that something was, I wasn't sure, but there was a uniform involved so it had to be special.

Even though I wasn't exactly sure what the girls had to do to earn badges, I wanted to try.There may have been cooking, or starting a fire with two sticks, sewing, or helping an elderly person. A girl had to do brave and smart things to earn a badge.  I never got the chance to even try.

Oh how I wanted to wear that snazzy looking sash which came with the uniform. One day I would have worn the vest and the other day the sash. I'd have a troop number, and belong to something greater than just me, a group of girls who were doing interesting, possibly daring, things. I'm sure they went camping in woods and roasted marshmellow and sang songs.

I started my own adventure club once but only had the twins, Lisa and Cheryl, across the street join and we ran out of stuff to do on Alpine Lane. We went to the Ben Franklin instead and bought candy.

If I remember, Brownies and Girl Scouts were allowed out of classes for meetings and to hang out in the gym, or do other fun stuff.

So this is what they were doing. I'd have been happy to leave math to go walking with my white tennis shoes down a ramp wearing my sash and have a audience watching, too. Those were probably the ladies who gave out the badges. Maybe this little brownie received a  badge for balance.

I don't remember nagging my mom to get me involved in the Girl Scouts.
I think I felt I wasn't worthy enough for the uniform which is odd because now I dislike wearing my work uniform, but being a Brownie or Girl Scout would have been different. Of course I forgive my dear mom. I have a suspicion,  because she worked outside the house, she didn't want to be roped into having volunteer to be a troop leader.

Juliette Gordon Low is the gal on the far right who started the Girl Scouts. Even when they wore uniform that covered them almost from head to toe, they looked spiffy and very proud and determined to follow their motto.

Can't argue with that. Of course, I must mention one of the key things Brownies and Girl Scouts were, and still are, required to do.  Push sugar. I mean sell cookies. Even that looked appealing to me as I love cookies, particularly the sugar cookies. Even if I couldn't have sold all my boxes of cookies, I would have just eaten the left overs.

The world may now be connected by email, Internet, and cell phones, but at least it hasn't changed so much that we still don't meet face to face those little girls in braces and braids selling thin mints and peanut butter cookies. How can you say no?

Finally, I must accept it's too late to achieve  my dream of being a girl scout. I really don't sew well, anyway, and my back would ache if I slept in just a sleeping bag in the woods. I have matches if I want to start a fire.

 It's not too late for me to join another club for women of a certain age. All I need to do is buy a red hat and a purple dress. If there were badges for drinking wine, I'm sure I would earn one in no time.