by

daphne

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Me. A young girl. In third or fourth grade. A girl scout. Loyal. True Blue. Until the day I did the unspeakable. I used my collected girl scout cookie money to purchase a pair of Vans tennis shoes.

My co-conspirator and I were walking, going door to door, dropping off pre-ordered cookies, collecting $1.oo dollar a box? money, and stuffing it into an over-sized protective envelope. The money was safe there. Until we thought we could use some. Spend it. On ourselves. Without anyone knowing. Just one pair of gotta have shoes, for each of us.

We browsed. Looked at the various colors. Simple colors. Original colors. Like black, grey, dark blue, light blue, and white. I chose not dark, but light blue. We walked out. Big smiles on our faces. New shoes on our feet.

The plan. I would tell my mom that her mom bought them for me. And she would tell her mom that my mom bought them for her. Seemed simple. Logical. No big deal.

How nice! My mom stated. I really must call. To say thank you.

Oh, no, don’t worry, I responded. I already told her.

I watched my mom count the cookie money. And then. That’s when. I knew. I had made a big mistake. Just as I was coming up with a new plan. A new explanation. My mom looked up at me. Just looked. She didn’t say a word. But I knew she knew. And boy did I feel guilty. And bad.

24 thoughts on “daphne”

  1. Well– I never spent my girl scout money- but I when I was young and sitting in the grocery cart, my mom would pull from the front of it (instead of push me) and each time we passed the cucumbers in the produce section, I would grab one, take a bite, and throw it back before anyone saw me do it.

    Until I got caught with a mouthful of cucumber. I was about 3 or 4 and I had a LOT of explaining to do…and I remember crying out “I’m so sorry–they just looked so good!”

    Never did that again. I was too scared and that look my mother gave me– I was so ashamed. My mom never pulled me in the cart again, she always pushed me after that! And I always felt guilty whenever we passed he cucumbers on subsequent trips. LOL.

    I loved your story!! 🙂

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  3. As I was reading this story, I knew you were going to get caught, just waiting for it. We’ve all done things like that growing up. I remember a time or two “getting our stories straight” with my best friend. 😉

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    • so true, dani…. without thinking about it, that’s how i have dealt with my own kids and their mis-steps (my daughter once told me it’s worse if i am disappointed than if i yell…)

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    • i don’t think i was feeling brave, i just wanted the shoes…. without really thinking about the fact i was stealing money, and that my parents would figure it out…. ( i am one of 11 children, and i figured they couldn’t afford to buy them, so i probably thought i was helping them out)… 🙂

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  11. I kind of love this. The fact that you weren’t the perfect little girl scout. We used to make crank calls at our monthly meetings….

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