The Glowing Embers of My Camp Fire Girls Days
Thank You is such a puny expression for so much dedication and wisdom.
My own mother was a leader of our Blue Bird
troop and later I joined another troop in Phoenix as a Campfire Girl. Our school offered both Girl Scouts and Camp
Fire Girl affiliations and after school programs. I am realizing in trying to re-create the
nostalgia that I wish I had kept those beads and ceremonial gowns. Camp Fire Girls was formed in 1910 by a
several people who had a summer camp in the forest for girls only. I believe they should have left it a girl’s
only organization. Since 1975 they have
allowed boys to join and the name has changed to Camp Fire USA.
I believe the younger ones who are known as
Blue Birds could certainly be co-ed but even then perhaps it is not a good idea. I believe that all Camp Fire Girls should receive
a sort of Debutant Party at age 16.
After age 16 they are no longer known as Camp Fire Girls. They need another name that suggests they are
now fully emerged as females and there is a rite of passage for that. They have
blossomed into remarkable women who can now hold the standard for the younger
ones. It would be desirable for some of
the young women to mentor younger sisters as camp counselors. That is the way I
remember Camp Fire Girl Camp. We had 17 and 18 year old counselors that were
really “cool”. I believe that females
need their own sphere of development and at a certain age there is a preference
to be with one’s own sex. We as girls 8-15
are a work in progress. We need the
assurance that we are not alone with all the transformation we endure. It is a private club so to speak. Nature seems to be unveiling our end result at
the rate of one small petal at a time and on a need to know basis. We are evolving and there is mystery and
creation in this sacred process. It is
not just hormonal and physical change. Yes, those changes are present and none
of us can halt Mother Nature on her triumphant march. There are psychological changes, and cognitive
changes, that perhaps only peers of same sex can relate too.
There is so much gratitude for the organization
and the friends I had that I can barely express it. I want to present a gold medallion to our
Camp Fire Girl leader, Mrs. Jones. She
created the best group experience I will ever know. There are not enough words to thank her and I
often wish I could reach all the group members and share poignant memories from
our troop. I was looking on line for
some history and found that things have changed and so dramatically.
I remember the ceremony where we all received our
“Indian” gowns. These were a brown
cotton simple dress, but we added buck skin vests and fringe to them. During the summer ritual ceremonies we used
our Indian Names, wore our gowns and head bands with a feather, and received various
colored beads for “good works” that we had done. All things big and small were
recognized. Doing a book report as an
individual, to going to sing at convalescent homes (as a group) are some
examples of personal goals and group community service that were recognized
with beads. Camp Wamatochic was a place
we went for a few weeks in the summer.
It was the absolute best experience.
We either had a group cabin or a group teepee. The days were full of activities and we slept
like logs at night. I remember being
slightly homesick at times and it was nice to get mail. It is amazing that any of us girl friends
would be homesick, but, I guess that comes with the age of being 10 to 12 years
old.
I began the walk through my memories when asked
a simple question. That question was: How did I begin my training as a psychic or
medium? I remember our leader, Mrs.
Jones, was ahead of her time on some subjects.
She read to us about psychic development and emotional awareness. She was an avid reader and very creative and
intelligent. She became aware of some
literature from articles she read in Reader’s Digest. Many explorations of the occult and the
paranormal were brought up in some of our back yard camp over’s on the weekends.
I
became very curious about the occult and began to read and explore on my
own. I also was starting to open more
intuitively especially my clairnoyant abilities as a teen age girl. In every
culture it seems there is wisdom sought from a virgin. I believe that at age 15 I was not only a
virgin but my chakras were fully open. There is a
window of time when you hit the highest point and I do think that is prior to
the full maturing of a female. Quite accidentally all things came together for
my personal development.
They say there are no accidents. I agree.
The universe brougth teachers to me as this was my life path. In my next several posts I have other teachers to talk about. Some I have not thought about in years and I am happy to write about them.
In closing, my heart is full of the best
memories and if I could wave a magic wand, it would be to deliver the same
enchantment to all young ladies. We were
so very lucky back in the 60’s to have the all girl version of a good
organization.