Sunday, October 20, 2019

Girl Scouts of the mid century

What a fun time Girl Scout meetings were in the 1970s, at least for me. I liked feeling official in my green dress and sash and wool beret. Over the years my lovingly saved beret has been found by moths, since it didn't get stored in the cedar chest or in those horrible stinky mothballs. I remember excitedly going to JC Penney's to have mom buy my latest earned merit badge to be lovingly sewn to the growing collection on my sash. 

I felt very grown up when I attended one awards ceremony when instead of knee socks to wear that evening, Mom had bought for me and presented to me a pair of suntan color pantyhose. Pantyhose!! I was very grown up, so I thought. And suntan color too, even better and more grown up! I actually thought for some reason that I would look grown up like Marsha (on that show with 3 sisters and 3 brothers, you know the one). What? What a silly me.  Now thinking back, I don't remember seeing her in a Girl Scout uniform on the show. Maybe a legal issue with the name so they had a different generic name when she was part of a club in that script. Nonetheless, in my preteen brain, I was grown up like Marsha because she wore pantyhose with her short 1970s dresses and she had long straight hair like mine, so....I could pretend, right? 

 I was never an excelling Scout at cookie selling however. I was a bit introverted when it came to door to door salesmanship, and even at a young age I guess I picked up on that I did not want to be known as "that" relative at family gatherings begging to make cookie sales from aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents. On the other hand, if people came to me for their favorite cookie purchase once a year, that was fine by me.
 I learned a lot of new things in Girl Scouts. One of the best memories was when a mom of a girl in our troop volunteered to come to one of our meetings and taught us how to do basic crochet. I was hooked (haha, bad pun) from the very start. I was crocheting my heart out and was so thrilled with the yarn possibilities of things to make that were absolutely necessary to basic life. A bright red pouch for Mom to put her keys into inside her purse. Huh?, doesn't every mom need one? Many different colored Barbie doll blankets. Because Barbies get cold you know! Scarves for myself with squiggled uneven edges that I wore proudly whether or not the color coordinated with my coat or not. I was a fashion plate for sure!! Over the years I have made better quality, more useful items from yarn and a crochet hook. I even believe I have invented a lot of the crochet stitches as I have experimented with creativity, but maybe not. Maybe I unwittingly have stumbled upon real ways of doing crochet and told myself I have been the first to do it. Oh well, the thrill is still there when I hold a crochet hook in my hand, and reminisce preteen days.
I came across this vintage Girl Scouts crest needlepoint kit that was unopened and figured someone would have great memories attached to the image of this design. The design was retired or discontinued in 1976 according to the all-knowing internet. This kit will bring to someone a happy bit of nostalgia. Maybe they were the top cookie seller, maybe they grew up to be a sweater designer with crochet, maybe they kept their wool beret safe from the hungry moths over many decades of storage. Maybe they just like to have fun retro needlepoint projects to undertake.

Find my Etsy shop by clicking in over in the right hand margin of the blog page for a look around at all sorts of curiosities. You will find fun things in the sewing/craft patterns and kits section in the shop. Or just click HERE to go directly to this item. Update: This fun item has sold. Thank you!

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