Of course, since I am totally immersed in trading Girl Scout patches, you might assume I’m an active GS leader. Well, surprise – I’m not! I don’t even have any daughters! So, what’s my story?? Well here it is.
Actually, I’m a former girl scout, former girl scout leader and current cub scout and boy scout mom. I was a girl scout here in Houston, 2 years as a brownie, 3 years as a junior and 2 years as a cadette. I would have stayed in longer, but there were not very many cadette troops in my area when I was young, and when I finally got placed in one, it didn't work out because they didn't work on badges or do any GS stuff. We all just sat around at our leader's house and talked during our meetings. After a few of those meetings, I quit going.
As an adult, before I had kids, I decided to volunteer as a leader. I had a troop of juniors who bridged to cadettes, and when another leader wanted to take over that troop, I got a new troop of brownies. I stayed as the leader till they were 2nd year cadettes, and unfortunately, the troop kinda dwindled down to nothing at that time and I had to quit anyway because my time was being increasingly filled by the 2 little boys I had given birth to in the meantime. I became involved in cub scouts, little league, and who knows what else. I was a GS leader for ten years in all.
Currently I am Webelos Leader for my 9 year old son who recently graduated to Webelos, and I serve on the Pack Committee in odd jobs. My 11 year old son just joined a Boy Scout Troop, and I have not yet attempted to volunteer in that group, although I am sure it is just a matter of time.
When I was a GS leader, I really got into patch collecting and actually filled up 3 large tote-type bags with patches, not only GS patches, but patches from all kinds of places I had been. When on vacation or visiting tourist type places, I can usually buy a patches for under $5 and they make a great souvenir. I’d rather have a patch to sew on as a permanent reminder of the places I’ve been, than a $20 t-shirt that I’ll wear twice and then throw in the closet! I also collect refrigerator magnets – they are usually $3 or less! (You should see my fridge!!!) By the way, I hope to one day add photos to my web page, and will include photos of my patch bags!
Anyway, back to my GS leader days, I did think it would be so terrific to get patches from other councils, and when visiting my friend in Oklahoma City once, I dragged her down to the Red Lands Council office and bought a council patch!
Then one of the girls in a local troop (who used to baby sit for my kids but just graduated from college!!!) went on a wider op to Minnesota, and I said, oh, please get me a patch from the local council. She did and when I started collecting patches on the internet, I discovered that I have a patch from a now extinct council – Northern Lakes.
I wanted to collect council patches back then, but there was no internet! I tried to get addresses of other councils, figuring I'd contact each one, and buy their patch, but when I asked my council, they looked at me suspiciously and said, “Well.... why don't you write to national.” So I did, and national wrote me back and said I should ask my own council! I figured oh well, big secret!
Then one day a couple of years ago, I ran across a patch trading page. I thought -- Hey! I'm not the only loony in the world, there are lots of us out there!!! And trading is lots more fun than just buying the patches, although I have bought several of the hard-to-get ones.
Now that I have finally gotten all the councils, giving up trading didn't sound too good, so I'm still in the game, collecting Camp Patches, Anniversary Patches, Council Pins and Boy Scout Council Shoulder patches.
If you would like to see the 2 former San Jacinto patches that I have, please , click here.
