I don't know what invaluable vein I struck when I found her, but I know she's the most precious thing in my existence and staying by my side.

DougW, I’m so excited to learn of such a dedicated of volunteers and a wide array of skills! I’m impressed! Please tell her I said hello! I wasn’t able to join GS’s until 4th grade so I missed Brownies altogether. I worked hard for my badges! Some I couldn’t claim since mom was AWOL a whole bunch. My Scout Leader could sign off on a couple though. Still my sash went all the way down and partially up my back! I was proud of myself. We were part of the Greater Cleveland OH area. When we first sold cookies we had to go door to door! Couldn’t set up in front of stores like Walmart or Target, or any grocery store. We weren’t allowed to have mommies or daddys take the order form to work on our behalf. Whatever the number of boxes you sold were only because of ourselves! We had to walk from door to door. We couldn’t drive either. We weren’t old enough nor did we have our own cars! ;)
Learning about the fine points of making s’mores was so fun! We were city kids so didn’t know much about starting a campfire. Now look here Doug, we buglers also played TAPS! Nobody ever complained about too much noise at bedtime! Lol
Did your mom hear of where we went? Ten Sleep Wyoming? A massive site spreading for MANY miles! When hiking to another Scout’s camp it often took HOURS! We weren’t allowed exhausted by the time we got there. We packed our own food to eat at who’s ever camp we traveled to. Girls eat lots after hikes like this! Some of the best part of my life involved Scouts. I still have some friends from Scouts today. I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything! Thanks for listening Doug! Doug is my older bros name. One bro 2 years older and one bro 2 years younger. The younger one passed a few years ago. 🎶 🌈 🇺🇸

@A MyDepressionTeam Member, Gayle, my wife's mom, about to roll her odometer over to 99 on July 4, retired 2 years ago after 87 years of service to the Girl Scouts in the Greater Philadelphia area. If, *IF* I heard her correctly once, she was one of the girls selling Girl Scout cookies the first few years in front of Wanamaker's, an old department store in Philly. She ran the kitchen for 4 local camps, was site director for many years, her husband (fancy that, another sperm donor) was a registered Girl Scout, as was her 3 daughters, my wife one of them. Mom has been to the UK and Europe many times, attended several Jamborees (her father and two brothers were both Boy Scouts) ,stayed with pen pals from Scouts in other countries, has stories to tell out the wazoo, and Melissa and I held our reception in the Sundial Building at Camp Shelley Ridge, just north of Philadelphia. I wish I could find a picture, it was breathtaking.

And I've heard many stories of the Camp bugler waking *EVERYONE* at the buttcrack of dawn, especially at Camp Indian Run, where we spent many anniversaries and mini-vacations, the Philadelphia Council sold it to developers because it wasn't modern and properly adapted as the rest of the local camps

Anywho, I'll tell my wife and her mom I know a Girl Scout!

EDIT: she *was* one of the first Gitl Scouts to sell the cookies in downtown Philadelphia and there were only two flavors, but neither of us remember if she said what kinds.

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A MyDepre...

My best memory from my childhood was when my dad wasn't home. There were 5 of us and everyone left home as soon as we could. My oldest brother left home when he was 15 and I have no idea where he went or stayed with but he turned out okay. He is about 11 years older than me and I don't have any memories of him when he lived at home. I only remember one time when both my older brothers came back to visit a couple years later and bought a toy for me and my little brother. They had gone to Valdez fishing and brought us some fish. They caught a rock fish and it was crazy looking but also was very tasty. My next oldest brother is almost 8 years older than me. He worried about us younger kids and sometimes snuck in to check on us without my dad knowing. We stayed home alone during the summer. I watched my younger brother (6 years younger). This one time I was alone. My brother picked the lock to my dad's filing cabinet and got the key to the three wheeler and the padlock to the chains that locked it up. The house was outside of town so there were lots of dirt/gravel roads and trails through the woods. We rode down to this store and he bought me a cadbury bar and a pepsi and he got cigarettes for himself. He also got some gas in a can to refill the tank later. I watched him count out change and he didn't have any money left. We went zooming all over the place. He did jumps and crazy turns. He tried to go up the side of this gravel dike but we flipped over backwards and almost broke our necks. That scared him because he thought I got hurt. I was fine though. Afterwards we went back home and he locked up the 3 wheeler just *exactly* the way it was before. Topped off the tank so the gauge was in exactly the same place. He took the dog's chain and led him around it covering up out footprints. All you could see were dog tracks and rocks. He put the key back and my dad never knew.

I'm not kidding!
Here's a photo that shows how beautiful our place in the Shawnee National Forest:
Yes, we live just up the road from the lake!
We walk it every day with the dogs.
We moved here to retire.
I think it has helped me heal from some damaging stuff....a long psychotic psychosis that has left me completely foggy about everything.