Brownies Unleashed at Summer Camp

I haven’t shared a story or memory here lately, and for some reason, this one has been itching to get out.  On the way to earning the Gold Award, you had to earn all sorts of awards with breathtaking and awe inspiring titles dreamed up in GSUSA meetings such as Dreams to Reality, Let’s Make It Happen!, Careers in Exploration, The Challenge of Being a Girl Scout, and The Senior Girl Scout Challenge.  There were also some silver and gold Leadership Torches.  Throw in some yellow and green service bars and lots of community and Girl Scout service hours and you’ve got yourself a full sash. 

I earned Girl Scout service hours as a rising 8th grader at the 1986 Northeast Georgia Council Super Summer Camp.  I was going to be in charge of the Brownies.  Well yessireebob.  I knew I’d whip those Brownies into shape as early as Monday morning.  I had it in my head that I was going to be the most awesome Brownie leader that ever hit Girl Scouts (as a Cadette, no less!).  And if they caused me any trouble – well, they wouldn’t cause me any trouble ’cause I knew I was just going to be so awesome.   How hard could this be?  I was going to be an 8TH GRADER! and they’d look up to me because I was a CADETTE! and they were just BROWNIES!

This was a day camp, so if I remember correctly, I only had the Brownies for the morning session, and/or they might have only gone for the morning, and maybe I spent the rest of the day there doing something else.  I don’t know.  It’s all one big blur.  You’ll see why in a little bit.

We had “training” a few days prior to go over all of the stuff for camp.  This was going to be fun!  I was going to be so awesome and these Brownies were going to love me!

Monday morning started, and I was introduced to the Brownies. We were assigned to this one area of the camp (most likely at the Sandy Creek Nature Center?), and I vaguely remember seeing some kind of lake and picnic tables in our area.

I told the girls a little bit about myself, and the Brownies looked uninterested in what I was saying and immediately began talking to each other and playing around.  I started talking louder, and they got louder.  Hmmm.  I tried to get us working on something, and it culminated in the Brownies running around the picnic tables playing tag.  Some of them ran into the lake.  Something was not going right. Monday morning ended in chaos.  But no big deal, they just hadn’t figured out how AWESOME of a Brownie leader I was.

[Looking back at this, I keep asking, “Where were the adult volunteers during all of this!?!?”  Oh, but it was the 80s when nobody wore seat belts or bike helmets.  So who needs adults?]

Tuesday began, and I had brought my very large water Thermos that day.  All that talking and running after Brownies had made me very thirsty.  Plus, it was a Georgia summer, and we were outside almost the whole time.  About 10am, I went over to my thermos to get some water because my mouth was completely dry after once again chasing Brownies and having to repeat myself 10 times for each step of whatever it was we were doing.  The Thermos was bone dry.

“What happened to all of my water??” I yelled.  “WE DRANK IT ALL!  Hee hee hee hee hee!” the demon Brownies giggled.

By Wednesday, there was blood in the water and the Brownies knew it.  We would travel to different stations at the camp, and my girls were the ones screaming and shrieking at the top of their lungs running all over the place at the next station.  The adult volunteers and council staff leading the activity (OH THERE YOU ARE, ADULTS!) gathered them up and said aloud, “WHO’S IN CHARGE OF THE BROWNIES???” Somebody pointed their finger at me as I came dragging into the pavilion mumbling something about how Brownies were the spawn of Satan.  I was admonished by the council staff that I really needed to get these Brownies under control.   I was a Cadette, after all.

I wept bitter tears that afternoon.

Thursday and Friday were a blur, and to be honest, I don’t really remember the rest of the week so I may be just making the rest of this up.  But I do have a very distinct memory of losing it and screaming up to the heavens, “I AM NEVER EVER EVER GOING TO BE A GIRL SCOUT LEADER!  EVER!  I HATE BROWNIES!”  The Brownies just laughed maniacally.  I probably rebelled against the council staff and adult volunteers by this point and fell back into my usual role of smart aleck as I unleashed the power of uncontrolled Brownies upon the entire summer camp.  Or maybe the staff saw the light and got somebody to help me.  I kind of like the idea of Brownies terrorizing the camp.

Again I ask, “WHERE WERE THE ADULTS?”  We were lucky that a severed pig head didn’t end up on a stick by the end of the week.  Maybe the adult volunteer assigned to us was over by the side smoking and having a drink or something.  Did they even have SafetyWise in the 80s?  If they did, was it about two pages long and double-spaced at that?

Obviously I got over my traumatizing Brownie experience and became a Girl Scout leader.  But Daisies are a different story.  They haunt my worst nightmares.