The OFFICIAL! OFFICIAL Scarf Story

I realized the other day that I’ve been referring to the OFFICIAL Scarf throughout this blog with no explanation.  People ask, “What’s the deal with this scarf thing?”  Finally, I am going to explain the story behind the OFFICIAL Scarf!  Hold on to your hats!  Or scarves!  This is probably one of those times when something is funny to you, but once you explain it to someone else, you realize (usually while you’re telling it and watching their facial expressions) it probably sounds very bizarre and not really funny at all.  At least that’s the impression I get when I tell my husband a story like this.  That said, he gives me strange looks for most of the things I tell him.  Well, I’m going to share it anyway.  You’ve been forewarned. 

So without further ado, here is the OFFICIAL Scarf story!

Believe it or not, there was a time when I was not so thrilled about an OFFICIAL Scarf.  Scarves (OFFICIAL, of course) were a part of the Cadette and Senior uniforms, and I never could tie the $*(@)#$(* things correctly – if I even remembered to bring it with me in the first place.  Usually someone had to tie it for me.  The picture on the left features the early 80’s Senior uniform with the OFFICIAL Senior Scarf, and the Cadette one looked exactly the same but with the heinous green plaid.  I was thrilled to bridge to Seniors in 1987 for the mere fact that we got to leave the green plaid behind and move on to the new late 80’s Senior uniform that did NOT have any kind of plaid on it whatsoever.  But like the Cadette uniform, it also had an OFFICIAL Scarf that I could not tie without it ending up crooked or sticking out all over the place.

It was bad enough that I had braces and the 80s perm hair thing going on, but the messed up Senior OFFICIAL Scarf just added to my goofy look.  It was a reversible blue/green tie with blue denoting Seniors and green for Cadettes, and you were supposed to have it tied juuuust right so that blue was the dominant color.  I was just happy that I remembered to grab it in the first place or even had it tied somewhat correctly, so who cared whether blue or green was the more outward facing color.  Someone on the council staff once tried to strangle me while tying my Senior OFFICIAL Scarf, but that is a story for another time.  Or not.  Probably not.  Yeah, we’re going to let that one go.

Troop 20 had a running joke that if you looked around and saw the adults wearing their OFFICIAL Scarves, then things were SERIOUS.  It was OFFICIAL business.  And if Mary Lee Flanagan, the executive director of our council, had on her OFFICIAL Scarf, then something was about to go down.  You know, like a formal event (aka a fundraiser), or we were getting our picture taken.  Those fundraisers were SERIOUS BUSINESS.  And Troop 20 was there to add to the ambiance, including that goofy girl with braces who obviously couldn’t tie her Senior OFFICIAL Scarf correctly.  Mrs. Vickers ALWAYS had on her OFFICIAL Scarf because she meant business all of the time.  In all sincerity, it was because she was very proud to be a Girl Scout Leader, and it showed.  And I thank her for that.

Now we’ll fast forward a couple of years to my college days at the University of Georgia.  I was in the UGA Redcoat Band, and as a part of our uniforms, we had to wear a lot of OFFICIAL Redcoat Band stuff like t-shirts, hats, and shoes.  We would receive memos about what we had to wear for whatever event, and OFFICIAL was always CAPITALIZED.  So we would make jokes like “Do you have on your OFFICIAL Redcoat Band t-shirt and OFFICIAL Redcoat Band underwear?  And OFFICIAL Redcoat Band earrings?” etc. ad nauseam.  Even today, the Redcoat Alumni Band emphasizes that you should wear the OFFICIAL gear to performances… OR ELSE!

Fast forward again to 2010 and when I began as a Girl Scout volunteer.  As I looked back on the days of struggling with OFFICIAL Scarves, I told myself, “I WILL NEVER WEAR AN OFFICIAL SCARF.  Not even an UNOFFICIAL one.  Ain’t gonna happen.  No way.”  I wasn’t even sure if they were still around at that point.  I just assumed everybody had come to their senses and they had gone out with the 1990s.  At my first volunteer training with our council’s Volunteer Resource Director, I joked about the horrible OFFICIAL Scarves.  She looked at me and said a little hurtfully, “I like my scarves.”  I hadn’t even started as a leader and I had already stuck my foot in my mouth.  It was the first time of many to come.  But thankfully our resource director was very nice and (hopefully) forgot about my OFFICIAL Scarf faux pas.

But I still vowed to everybody that an OFFICIAL Scarf would never touch my neck!

Last year, Da-nice and I were putting together a presentation for our council’s Mountain Magic Leader Weekend (that ended up being rained/flooded out).  We were told that we should emphasize resources that were from either OFFICIAL GSUSA or council websites.  So we did this by including a picture of an OFFICIAL Scarf next to OFFICIAL resources and called them “scarf-worthy.”  Anything else was UNOFFICIAL.

Needless to say, I fought it as long as I could, but I finally could not fend off the power of the OFFICIAL Scarf.  I now embrace it and make sure that EVERYBODY knows it’s not OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL if you aren’t wearing your OFFICIAL Scarf!

THIS IS OFFICIALLY THE END OF THE OFFICIAL SCARF STORY!

P.S. I have to get my friend Karen H. to tie it for me because I still can’t seem to get it just right.

P.S.S.  It’s very exciting to see that the GSUSA Online Shop has a section dedicated to OFFICIAL Scarves.

P.S.S.S.  I’d like to point out that the OFFICIAL Scarf is STILL out of stock after many, many weeks.  Earlier this year, I started my OFFICIAL Scarf campaign on the GS Facebook groups.  Coincidence?  I think not.  😉