A LOOK BACK:Girl Scouts at work and play

There is a particular time of the year when you see green all around town.

You can easily spot the time when little girls in green uniforms appear in front of local markets, post offices and the like, selling cookies to raise money for their troops.

These are the members of our Girl Scouts of Huntington Beach. When they are not out selling cookies, these young ladies are out helping make Huntington Beach just a little bit better and having fun along the way.

I recently drove past Gibbs Park (Sims Grove) on Graham across from Meadowlark Golf Course. I couldn’t help but remember my friend Rusty Shepard and the time when his wife Margaret and members of her Girl Scout troop 320 spent three days cleaning up this area so the girls could have an old-fashioned campout.

The campout was April 15, 1961. The scouts arrived a week early to start pulling weeds, raking and removing litter. They were joined by other troops from the Girl Scouts and Brownies, and parents.

During their three days of fun there were about 100 Brownies, scouts and their leaders in the campout at what the girls called “Meadowlark Forest.”

Our Girl Scouts have had a long history in helping out our community and in the process making it a better place to live.

This week we’ll look back at two other Girl Scout troops and see their contributions to World War II and also how they enjoyed themselves at a campout.

In the months prior to the June 6, 1944, D-Day landing in Europe, our Girl Scouts of Huntington Beach were busy collecting lifesaving items that would be placed on board in navy ship’s lifeboats.

In a small way these girls from troops 1 and 2 aided the war effort. It was on February 22, 1944, that Girl Scout troop 2 went door-to-door collecting items to be stowed in life rafts, which would help our sailors stay alive at sea.

When Gordie Higgins’ ship went down in a battle during the war, I wonder if any of the items on board his lifeboat came from our Girl Scouts back home?

The girls spent two weeks collecting clean bandages, fishing tackle, pocket knives, safety pins and scissors that would find theirway into these lifeboats. I wonder how many sailors owe their lives to these young scouts of Huntington Beach?

Girl Scout Troop 1 would also do their part for the war effort. On May 10, 1944, the scouts began a campaign to collect harmonicas for members of our armed forces overseas.

These musical instruments would be used as a morale builder for our boys on the front line.

Each girl of Troop 1 was assigned a certain area of Huntington Beach to canvas for working and nonworking harmonicas; the parts from broken ones would be used to repair others.

Alice Lewis and Marilyn Thornton got Delaware and Huntington Streets while Carol Lockett and Roberta Young received Main Street from Pecan to Pacific Coast Highway and also Sea Breeze Auto Camp.

Floradel Brown and Ruth Pruitt canvassed 11th to 16th streets and LaRae Craig and Carol Hansen went searching for mouth organs from 9th to 11th streets.

Scouts Julia McGuire and Barbara Burke’s route took them from 5th Street to 9th Street and the residential sections of Main and Crest went to Sylvia Thornton and Ruth Schultz, while scouts Jackie Incho and Charlene Stewart covered Park Street and parts of 10th and 11th streets.

Members of Girl Scout Troop 2 got a lesson in cooking meals. Scout leader Lois LeBard attended a cooking lesson for her girls on February 22, 1944, at Lake Park clubhouse and watched as her girls prepared spaghetti, French rolls, salad, cocoa and Jello.

Girl Scout troop 2 put those cooking skills to good use in a cookout in Lake Park on May 20, 1944, in which about 45 scouts with their leaders took part.

The first girls who arrived were assigned the task of marking a trail.

Once the girls were settled into camp, the campfires were lighted and when the embers glowed red, it was time for the scouts to prepare the cookout menu of kabobs cooked over the hot coals. They ended the meal with toasted marshmallows.

With the meal finished, it was time for the scouts to put out the campfires, bury the ashes and pick up the trash left in camp. Once this was completed the scouts made the trek homeward, happy but a little tired.

During World War II both the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts would bring high honors to their respected troops in small but significant ways.

Like the scouts of Troop 2, the girls of Troop 320 had a wonderful campout in Sims Grove, and like the scouts today, they have a great time while helping out our community.