Driving home from work tonight I passed the local Girl Scouts of America headquarters. On the sign which fronts the main road the message read “Girl Scouts 100th Birthday/ 1912-2012.” The marquee has been up there for some time but tonight it made me think of this picture.
That’s my mother, age unknown but certainly not much more than 10. Peering out proudly from her original issue Girl Scout hat. And I mean original issue. Martha Hathaway Whitaker O’Leary was born in 1911 and if you do the math that means she was one year older than the Girl Scouts. So this picture is probably from the first decade of the Girls Scouts of America. Pretty cool, huh?
Martha was a good person and no doubt the Girl Scouts helped mold her character. She would serve as a Scout leader in Norton, Massachusetts for many years. We moved to Florida in 1959 and her scouting days ceased. I wonder why? Just another in the long list of things you-wish-you-had-asked your parents. Perhaps it was just as simple as “enough”. But the Scouts roll on and do good things. Martha would like that. ❧
Alice's WanderLand 
Here the girl guides (the female branch of the scouts) have just decided to stop pledging allegiance to the Queen and have also dropped reference to serving God. Instead they have to promise to be true to themselves. That is an odd concept – could mean absolutely anything to my way of thinking.
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