Photoessay #28 - My two scouts

Two girl scout camp staff members, Styx and Nemo, in my kitchen recently. Styx will be a Unit Leader and Nemo will be a Counselor in Training 2 at the local camp this summer. Sisters. My daughters. The girl scout gene must have skipped a generation. My mother, always a dedicated girl scout, worked as a professional girl scout and camp director as a young adult. The year she was married, a camp director was needed as an emergency. My mother said she was willing to do it but my father had to come too. They set up a small apartment and my father commuted during that summer from the camp. My mother made sure that there was a piano that he could play in the lodge. She served as a girl scout leader for myself and my sister and continues to be active to this day.

Myself, I could never see anything in Girl Scouts, much to my mother's dismay. But look at my daughters! I never particularly encouraged them in scouting. I guess they could be in scouts if they wanted. Both of them have unwavering commitment. At the end of high school, Ilana said "Guess what I just found out? I can be a girl scout IN COLLEGE" and she's now the president of Campus Girl Scouts at the University of Washington. Ilana always liked wearing the uniform. "Anybody Girl Scout doesn't like wearing the uniform is not worth their salt" she sniffed as an 11 year old. Naomi, the youngest, I don't think she's ever owned one. That's the problem with being the youngest, nobody thinks to get you your own girl scout uniform.

"Of course, I'm selling Girl Scout Cookies" says Naomi, "Why wouldn't I?" Even though she knows she's likely going to have to sell the extra girl scout cookies that her troop members never get around to selling. Yup, we'll be in front of the local grocery store with all the leftover boxes until they are all gone.

Ilana's already up at camp. She's one of the most senior counselors, this being her third year on staff at a girl scout camp. But, as Naomi points out "You've never BEEN a counselor" "Oh yeah, that's right" Ilana agrees. When she was a CIT 2, they got short on staff late in the summer, one week they said, "Ilana, you are turning 18 this week, you are now a Counselor". The next year she was the Nature Specialist, a 'one hit wonder' by her own admission. She spent the whole summer teaching kids to kiss slugs. She had beads and certificates, the whole bit. Hundreds of local scouts came home bragging that they had kissed a slug. She was a little vague on the effect on the slugs. The next year, the nature staff had to admonish disappointed campers all summer "This summer, we are NOT going to kiss slugs". Last summer, she led canoe trips through the border lakes in northern Minnesota. A very specialized camp. She said, "It's not as if you are in the Wilderness or just like being in the Wilderness, you ARE IN THE WILDERNESS". She's already plotting how she's going to transform one of the camp horses into a unicorn for short displays this summer. She's got the horse all picked out. "His name's White Lightening. He is white but the lightening part doesn't really fit. I think it will work"