“Cookies, Cookies Everywhere!”

By

Gerry Niskern

Guess what? I found the cookies! Or I guess I should say, I found the Thin Mints, Smores, Tagalongs, and all the other sweet delights and the Girl Scouts selling them.

When cookie selling season started I started dreaming that maybe, just maybe some ambitious girl would make it all the way up to my street, like they used to years ago. But it was not to be. So I started watching the grocery stores hoping to see their table set up on Saturday. They are refused many locations these days because of “liability” concerns.

You see, I have a special spot in my heart for the Girls. When I was in the fifth grade at Jackson School a Girl Scout troop was formed; called troop # Eleven. Our leaders name was Miss Curlee, a second grade teacher. I’m sure the poor lady got the short straw, but lucky for us, she was young and pretty. All the other teachers looked to be over 100 to this fifth grader. Our dues were 2 cents per week.

My main Christmas present that year was a Girl Scout uniform. They cost a whopping three dollars.  And since I was the only one lucky enough to have one first, I got to represent our troop in the annual Rodeo Parade that year. We all stood on a wagon trying to keep our balance on a very bumpy ride down Central Avenue.

I enjoyed all the scouting experiences, but the thing that I was most excited about and really my main reason for joining was that I was going to get to sell cookies door to door. They were plain vanilla, with the Girl Scout emblem on the top.

When I took my boxes home and my mother heard the price, (25 cents), she said, “Absolutely not! I wouldn’t think of letting you ask the neighbors to buy a box of cookies for 25 cents when they can buy the same for ten cents at the grocery store”

In those days, that was that. CASE CLOSED!

Sure you can find less expensive cookies, but that’s not the point, is it? Why not support the organization that develops girls of courage, confidence and character worldwide? The Girl Scouts don’t ask for donations. They get out and hustle.

The girls promise “to help other people at all time:, and THAT YOU WILL LOVE THEIR COOKIES!