Scouts' Honor-I Swear

Awards ceremonies were pretty laid back in Florida in the 1980's. You’ll see a picture of Mimi getting her award (badge) for selling the most Girl Scout cookies in her troop. Matter of fact, she sold the most Girl Scout cookies in the whole county that year. Let me tell you how that happened.

Now I suppose I could let you think she was industrious and had a great sales pitch. I suppose I could let you think we took them to work and sold them for her....or, I suppose I could let you think that she was so cute that people lined up to buy cookies from her. Any of those stories would be a lie...here’s the truth.

I was NOT the Brownie leader but I was a willing helper. When I asked what I could do to help they asked me if I could store the 25 cartons full of cookies at our house and then they would pick up on an as needed basis. We had a spare bedroom that was not being used so I agreed to be "it". Each carton had a dozen boxes in it if I remember correctly. They sold for $1.00 a box at that time.

So, the campaign started. Mimi & Tpot each sold a few boxes. MamasBoy was always a willing participant in any sales pitch. He was so excited about those cookies that he was just bouncing off the walls....nothing TOO unusual about that fact. However, what was odd was the fact that the kid (who was always hungry) didn’t seem to be eating much. We asked him several times if he was feeling okay and he would just say that his tummy hurt a bit.

Lo & behold, the day rolled around when it was time to deliver the cookies. We started hauling boxes out of the back bedroom. Hmmm...this one has been opened....Hey-Mom-this one has been opened too. Oh...no....so is this one. All the cases had been opened. Every box in every case had been opened . Every row of cookies in every box in every case was missing a cookie or two. WHAT??????

At the bottom of the pile of lies was a nugget of truth. MamasBoy had been eating the cookies-However, we knew that he was too little to have resealed boxes and cartons by himself. Enter Child #1-older brother- HE had taken a few cookies out of each box and had bribed MamasBoy not to tell by plying him with cookies! Ah yes-were those cookies good? They were SO good that the reward was a 3 week grounding.

The payoff? The big benefit? Mimi got the award for selling the most boxes of Girl Scout cookies-we bought them all! Need I tell you- the Thin Mints went first!