That's Not Very Nice!

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Girl Scouts at My Door

The girl scouts came over last week. Turns out that they sell candy now. I told them that I was sorry I could not buy any because I am poor.

They do not know how to react to that response. I found it hilarious. Just hilarious. I don't know why I find humor in that but I do.

Since when do they sell candy now too? What the heck do they need all that fundraising money for? Camp? What? I am not familiar with what they do, but I find it hard to believe that it could cost that much money to have a good educational club.

Whenever these kids come around selling stuff it almost always ends up setting me back ten bucks. Boy scout wreath, a couple of boxes of cookies, frozen cookie dough, tulip bulbs, wrapping paper etc...

I think that is just too much money for crap I don't need or want, and it sucks that it is little kids I have to shoo off my step. I would be a lot happier if they just told me what they were raising the money for, and I would give them a couple of bucks, instead of trying to sell me overpriced stuff. I just don't think I should be expected to shell out that much money.

When I was in 4-H as a kid we would do the adopt a highway thing, and all the aluminum cans that we found we would take in for scrap. We relied on free stuff like county-wide softball games and potluck picnics, swimming at the state park, demonstrations at the town hall, Christmas caroling at the country homes of the elderly, the county fair.

Occasionally we would have a rummage sale to raise money for rollerskating or something. Parents were encouraged to supervise and lead activities, and it was an unspoken but fully understood that no child would be left out and I saw many times that a older kid or a understanding parent would buy a poor kid an ice cream cone after softball, or at the end of walking in the local parade. No one expected the kid to have any money, and they just casually took care of it. Everyone just made it work.

I learned a lot about being a responsible adult by being in 4-H. It took almost no money at all to show 20 or 30 kids how to be good people, and better people.