The Best Job in the World
A reflection by Denise Shaffer, a Girl Scout alum.
I recently read a blog about “The Best Job in the World.” It was written by a woman who had been a camp counselor in a California Day Camp in the 80’s. It was supposed to be funny, and it was to some extent. There were some things I agreed with, but largely, let me tell you, I learned that I will be forever grateful that my camp counselor experience was with the Girl Scouts on the opposite coast, in New Jersey. It was not in the 80’s but back in the primitive years of 1968 through 1970.
Having been a summer camper from 1960 through 1967, I was experienced enough to apply for my first job with the Girl Scouts, as a camp counselor in the summer of 1968. This was no day camp. This was a serious “overnight” (or “Resident”) camp, a full five days and six nights worth of singing, hiking (“a hike is a walk with a purpose…”) cooking over a campfire, dining hall antics, swimming in a pool and canoeing in a lake, morning and evening flag ceremonies, camp counselor names (mine was “Totem”), and using the patrol system to teach responsibility and how to work together as a team. We knew what S’mores were before the Hershey company knew the ecstasy a chocolate bar could bring to a graham cracker and a marshmallow.
My Girl Scout training started in Girl Scout Troop 62 in Eatontown New Jersey and it was polished off when I went to camp - can YOU build a table with twine and sticks? As I got older I spent one week each summer at resident camp. One year I attended “Gypsy Camp.” This specialty camp found four girls pulling this really cool wagon, filled with our cooking & tenting gear & backpacks full of personal gear, throughout Monmouth county. We pulled that loaded pull-cart to museums, parks, historic sites, and other campsites, sixteen of us taking turns, four girls at a time. Talk about building character!!!
By the time I was old enough to apply for the job as a camp counselor, I had a resume`, and you can bet it was loaded with Girl Scout experiences. I knew all the Girl Scout and patriotic songs, how to build a fire in the rain, cook blueberry pancakes over said fire, and how to identify “skunk cabbage” and poison ivy. I could build three different kinds of fires - including a serious camp fire, I could (and still) can teach songs, and take photographs.
One summer we had an “Arts Week.” Part of the fun was working with the campers to learn how to decorate salvaged hat boxes while listening to the strains of Bolero! I will never forget that repetitive musical phrase and those books of wallpaper and chaotic pieces of striped, flowered, animal and feather printed designer paper that was strewn about, covering the floor. Scissors snipped, paper flew, glue dripped and everybody hummed along while girls were introduced to a variety of art and classical music including Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi and Copeland.
One summer Mrs. Greismer was our cook. I remember that she offered fun meals and when I had an off hour she told me the secret to her FABulous brownies! I’m not sharing. Something else Mrs. Greismer brought to camp with her, was her daughter. Her daughter was our age. She was kind, fun, very educational, and she was blind. We learned a lot from that Girl Scout. Diversity in the 60’s - doncha’ know, Girl Scouting was on the cutting edge, even then.
Being a camp counselor WAS the best job in the world, but not because I could welcome the campers at 9AM and wave goodbye at 3PM - I couldn’t! It was a great job because I was both a teacher and a student. I taught girls to be proud of themselves, to have courage and confidence. I helped them to develop character - to not be afraid of trying/learning new things and experimenting with the unknown.
We lived and breathed the environment. We learned to embrace the dappled trees, club moss, open fields, gold finches, the creeks and the bridges over them. We learned the heart of ceremonies and of little handmade candled wishing boats floating down the stream. We learned to work hard as a team, to give Mother Nature a hug, and beyond all of that, I helped plant the seeds that became the women’s movement of the 70’s.
I had the best training in the world for my first job, and my advice to you is, if you have a daughter, enroll her in Girl Scouting and send her to Girl Scout Camp. Happy Trails - onward!
