GLOBE WEST 1
November 1932 couldn't come soon enough for Marion Lebourveau.That's when she would turn 10, old enough to join the Girl Scouts.
At last, she could put on the gray-green cotton dress. It wasseveral sizes too large at the start, but this no-frills outfit wouldbe the only uniform she'd wear during her seven years in the Scouts.
"During the Depression years, we bought things to last," saidLebourveau, a Worcester native who now lives in Needham. "I don'tknow if my mother thought it would last 75 years."
The uniform just went on display at the Needham HistoricalSociety, part of an exhibition marking the 90th anniversary ofNeedham's ties with the Girl Scouts. The national organization,founded in Savannah, Ga., by Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low, is justfive years older.
Lebourveau reminisced about learning to bake beans in a fire pitand spending nights in the wilderness. At Sunday's opening reception,Scouts from Needham's Troop 3090 chatted about a recent whitewaterrafting expedition in Western Massachusetts, and overnights at theBoston Fire Museum and the Science Museum.
The old-timers recalled mastering Morse code and two-flagsemaphore signals, as well as ironing and cooking. Today's Scoutstalked of navigating the Internet and launching businesses andnonprofits organizations.
But some things never change. When it came time to perform theScout standard, "Make New Friends," youthful and mature voices sangout: "Make new friends, and keep the old. One is silver and theother's gold."
The display, which runs through this summer, features historic andcontemporary uniforms, photographs, badges, and instruments from thefirst drum and bugle corps.
If you want to chart the changing role of women in society, justlook at the Girl Scout badges, said Lebourveau's daughter, Jan Drake,a Needham Girl Scout trustee and former troop leader.
Girls in the 1920s earned their cooking patch - symbolized by agridiron - by submitting well-balanced menus for a daylong hike. Theycould cook Mulligan stew or a berry shortcake.
By the 1990s, according to the display, girls were learning tocompare the ingredients of generic food items with name brands;calculate which size of a particular item offered the best deal; andconduct taste tests among frozen, fresh, and canned produce.
Scouts today learn about making meals more nutritious and teachingyounger girls exercise routines, said Laura Damon, the troopcoordinator for Needham.
They earn badges in desktop publishing, audiovisual production,and conflict resolution. With cookie season in full swing, the Scoutswill flex their entrepreneurial muscles to earn a "Cookie Biz" patch,learning about accounting, public relations, event management, andphilanthropy. While some girls may still sell door to door (or enlistparents to go desk to desk), the Scouts are also promoting sales onsocial networking websites such as MySpace and Friendster. Troops inthe early years baked the cookies and sold them in brown bags.
Today's focus on career-building skills ties in with theorganization's tradition of teaching girls to be resourceful, saidChris Davis, the director of the Girl Scout Museum at Cedar Hill inWaltham.
"The Girl Scouts have always offered girls the opportunity toexplore the current technologies of the day," said Davis, noting thatMorse code and semaphore were critical during World War I.
Back then, Girl Scouts were called the "Little Sisters of UncleSam." They knitted socks and made bandages for wounded soldiers. Theywore khaki short coats and skirts and wide-brimmed hats, displayingtheir badges on their sleeves. The Girl Scout drum and bugle corpsled town parades honoring the soldiers.
"They saw every serviceman off to war, no matter what time thetrain left," said Drake.
When Lebourveau was a troop leader during World War II, the girlslearned first aid and emergency preparedness. They wrote to troopsoverseas, raised money for supplies, and made afghans for thewounded.
Today, Girl Scouts send packages to soldiers in Iraq. Inside areshampoo, toothpaste, and other toiletries, as well as - what else? -boxes of Girl Scout cookies.
Troop 3095 members Hannah Braun and Lauren Yerardi, both 11, areearning a community service badge for volunteering at a nursery.Among their responsibilities is keeping track of the funds raised tobuy toys and books for children in low-income families.
The girls chatted in an exhibit room lined with black-and-whitephotographs of Scouts, some of whom may have earned badges operatinga teletype machine during World War II. The Hillside Elementarystudents said they just completed a communication unit in which theylearned Braille, typing on a computer, and speaking with propergrammar.
The girls were struck by the formal uniforms of the past, muchmore distinguished than the neon green vests Scouts today wear overtheir school clothes.
When Hannah said she wasn't so sure she'd want to wear a fulluniform to class, Lauren pointed out one big advantage: "On the dressyou could fit more badges."
The Girl Scout exhibition runs through the summer at the NeedhamHistorical Society at 1147 Central Ave. Admission is free. Hours are9 a.m.-noon Monday through Wednesday; additional times byappointment. Call 781-455-8860 or visit needhamhistory.org.
Lauren K. Meade can be reached at lmeade@globe.com.
SIDEBAR:
Sweet memories
Long before the Thin Mint, Girl Scouts sold homemade cookies inbrown paper bags for about 30 cents a dozen. Here is an official GirlScout recipe dating from 1922.
Makes six to seven dozen cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 2. Cream butter and sugar; addwell-beaten eggs, then milk, vanilla, flour, salt, and baking powder.3. Refrigerate for at least one hour. 4. Roll out dough, cut intotrefoil shapes, and sprinkle sugar on top if desired. 5. Bake for 8to 10 minutes or until edges begin to brown.
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