In a fairly empty bin in the attic, amidst yearbooks and old job mementos, is my Girl Scout sash, adorned with pins and badges I earned over 40 years ago. I don’t use Braille but the round discs with a sewn graphic allowed me to trace the raised icons to assist my limited sight in determining what each badge was. Some I had to Google, which caused me to wonder what 5th Grade Girl Scout Sister Rain would have thought of her future self’s handheld computer, full of infinite knowledge.
The badges:
Books
Collector
Cook
Cyclist
Health Aid
Housekeeper
Magic Carpet
Musician
Pets
Sewing
Story Teller
Water Fun
World Games
All these years later, my interests haven’t changed that much. I love to read, tell stories, cook, cycle (only now it’s stationery), listen to music (the clarinet is long gone); I take a swim every night in my soaking tub. I watch the Paralympics and Olympics whenever they’re on; if they aren’t World Games, I don’t know what is. I share my life with a small parrot who probably considers me his pet more than I do him. I collect Christmas ornaments and decor on our travels. I clean my house every week. When it comes to sewing, I only did it for the badge. I had no recollection as to what the Magic Carpet badge was but the handheld computer informed me it was learning about folklore, fables and fairy tales. Ah, to be young again before reality kicked in. Now that’s a badge I could earn with my eyes closed: the Reality badge!
These badges are a snapshot of a time when life was much simpler, when hobbies were celebrated. Skills that would last a lifetime were encouraged and rewarded. The options available to children today are vastly different than my youth, almost unrecognizable as the same stage of life. But I like knowing that despite an interesting four decades later, I’m not that far from where I started. I would immediately be able to identify that braces-wearing, early-developer, daughter-of-an-alcoholic-father girl who begged her mom to let her join the Girl Scouts (I swear she thought it was a cult) so that girl could feel like her classmates with their seemingly perfect families. I think she would recognize me too, although I’d have some explaining to do about the clarinet.
sisterrain #alittlesightalotofheart #legallyblindwriter #girlscouts #onmyhonoriknowher
