Saturday, January 20, 2007

Cookie Time

It's Girl Scout cookie time! I picked up two boxes the other night. The little girls wanted me to try their New! Lemon! (somethings), but I got some "default" cookies instead--the peanut butter sandwich ones, and the always lovable Thin Mints.

This will not be the last time this season that we will purchase cookies. I didn't get the shortbread kind yet, and I can't let the season pass without those! But purchasing cookies led me to reminisce about past Cookie experiences.

Cookies are three-fifty a box nowadays, and contain about, oh, fourteen cookies. When *I* was selling cookies, they were fifty cents a box, and the thin mints had three rows of cookies, not two. There were only about four kinds, the peanut butter sandwich ones being a *new* variety while I was in Scouts. The shortbread cookies were called "Sugar Shortbread" in my day--of course, these were the days of Post Sugar Crisp and Kellogg's Sugar Pops cereal--now we think that if we don't put "sugar" in the title, people won't know that there is sugar in the product. Later the shortbread cookies were called "trefoils" and now I think they are just called Shortbread. For some reason, Thin Mints has never gone through a name change.

I remember being little and sharing a room with my sister, six years older than I. She had had a good selling season, and when her cookies were delivered, she kept them in our room until she could make her deliveries. I somehow got the idea that if I took just one cookie out of a box, no one would know the difference. About fourteen boxes later, I was found out. I don't know what happened to the cookies; probably my father went with her to explain to neighbors what had happened. Sure seemed like an okay idea at the time....

Girl Scouting has gone through other changes, as well. I picked up two old GS manuals at a used library sale. One was my sister's manual, ca. 1953, and the other was the one I used, ca. 1963. Looking through them, I notice the theme was to develop character in order to be a good citizen. By the time my oldest daughter was in Scouts (mid-80's), the emphasis was on becoming a "global" citizen, and no mention was made about being a good homemaker.

But some things never change. Mmmm, Thin Mints. Gotta be my favorite.

1 comment :

Anonymous said...

My husband called me from work the other day to ask if we could order some Girl Scout cookies, since one of his coworker's daughter was selling them. I couldn't think what to order except for 2 boxes of the thin mints. You're right-they are an all-time favorite! Enjoyed this post.