At the Beginning

Happy 108th Birthday, Girl Scouts!

If you follow my goofy Girl Scout Facebook profile, you’ll know that I love looking through old Girl Scout Leader Magazines and finding random bits of history and posting things that I find interesting.  I always attempt to publish a blog post on March 12th and October 31st, and admittedly, sometimes I am scrambling when I realize that I don’t have much time to think of something.  For this year though, I started browsing through issues last week, but nothing was really jumping out at me.   But today, something did!  Right in the nick of time!

I went back to the March 1962 issue of Leader Magazine celebrating the 50th anniversary of Girl Scouts and found an article by Page Randolph Anderson Platt, a member of the first Girl Scout troop.  She wrote an article about what it was like and her experiences.  You can find the article on pg. 10 including a picture of the first troop along with other pictures, but here’s the text: 

At the Beginning

Looking back to 1912 – a distance of fifty years – to Girl Scouting at the beginning, in Savannah, Georgia, seems a difficult task. Early impressions are vivid, however, and mine were, at that time. The old photograph above shows a small group of girls who were my schoolmates at Miss Nina Pape’s School, in front of a little cabin out at “Bonna Bella,” a lovely wooded point near Isle of Hope. I was the fourth from the left, and evidently having trouble with my enormous hair ribbon. Our middy blouses, bloomers, and long black stockings were today’s equivalent of shirts and shorts.  We went out every Saturday in the care of a nice old gentleman who was a naturalist – Professor Hoxie.  He taught us camping and the names of plants and trees. We had picnics, and a leaky rowboat in which we went crabbing and fishing. Once, I remember, we stuck in the mud, and had to sit in the marsh, devoured by mosquitoes, until the tide came in. We were Girl Scouts in embryo, although we did not know it at the time.

My home was on Lafayette Square – next to that of Juliette Gordon Low – or “Cousin Daisy” as I always called her.  She was devoted to my mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson Randolph Anderson, and often came over to our house.  Although she had no children of her own, she was always interested in young people.  She was full of enthusiasm and a vital energy that helped her overcome obstacles and carry out her farseeing plans and ideas.  In 1912, on her return from England, she asked my mother if she would become a “captain” and have me and my friends form a troop.  Mother was interested and so were we, but we certainly did not realize that we were making history. However, when we met in the stable house (now called the First Headquarters) in Mrs. Low’s yard, and she solemnly lined us up and asked us to raise our right hands to take the oath of allegiance, we felt that we were in on something Big, especially as she said many times, “It will be for all girls in America.” She had borrowed one book from Sir Robert Baden-Powell with the requirements for badges, and we studied it with interest and not a little bickering, since we had to borrow it from each other and some were slower than others. After many suggestions we voted to choose the White Rose for our emblem, and green and white for our colors. We decided on uniforms of dark blue middy blouses and bloomers and a pleated skirt, and light blue neckties. We studied first aid, homemaking, nature craft, and cooking (mostly making fudge), and would meet once a week – as well as some Friday evenings at my house for supper and games. Mrs. Low was busy organizing other troops by this time.

We played tennis and basketball and had an inter-troop league. We studied and worked with enthusiasm, and our White Rose Troop, under the guidance of my mother, Page Wilder Anderson, and the inspiration of Mrs. Low, carried on as a happy unit in the fast-growing organization that was sweeping America. Then many of our group went away to school. In 1916 several members of our troop served as Nurses’ Aides and in the Red Cross Motor Corps, and our early training as Scouts was of great value to us. I drove a Red Cross ambulance all through the war and the great flu epidemic.

Our later appearance as a troop was in 1922, when the National Convention of Girl Scouts was held in Savannah, and Mrs. Low gave a tea at her home to all the visiting officers. Our band had become smaller, but those of us who were in Savannah were delighted to be invited by Mrs. Low to act as hostesses and help serve with a white rose pinned on our lapels. That year I was married and moved to Philadelphia, where I have lived ever since.

In 1926, the city of Savannah wished to honor Mrs. Low. They presented her with a scroll and a silver coffee service.  An impressive ceremony was held in Forsyth Park, and Mrs. Low stood to receive her gifts with my mother, the first leader, on one side and her niece Daisy on the other. Our White Rose Troop stood at attention directly behind her. Our last act as a troop was to send white roses to lay at the feet of our friend and leader Juliette Low when she was buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery.

Many years later, after my children had become teen-agers, I joined the Philadelphia Girl Scouts.

In 1956, after the death of my mother, I gave a small fountain to the garden of the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace – a memorial to her as the first troop leader. Her little great-granddaughter Page Randolph Allen, then a Brownie Scout in Wayne, Illinois, helped us at the ceremony. A member of our White Rose Troop paid a beautiful tribute to Mother, and I should like to quote from it in part: “I deem it a great honor to be asked to pay a tribute today to Page Wilder Anderson … Captain of the White Rose Troop. Those of us who were in that troop remember her with deep affection and reverence. She inspired us in our young years to follow the good and true things in life, and we spent many happy hours with her. . . . She was beloved by all who knew her, and those of us in the White Rose Troop adored her ….

“All Girl Scout leaders – past and present – have a gift for us, though one not to be touched with hands or weighed on scales. The gift of themselves – their skills, energy, and time.  Leadership, enthusiasm, courage, selflessness, character building, initiative – these are the gifts so generously bestowed on us, the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, by our leaders.”

I was privileged to have these gifts from the beginning, and I hope that my four little granddaughters will be able to share in the rich background for which Juliette Low and my mother wove the pattern. THE END