Girl Scouts

When I was little, I was a Girl Scout. Well, first I was a Brownie and then a Girl Scout. I have lots of memories of our meetings, selling cookies, and trips we took. But the memories that stand out the most to me are the ones of my Girl Scout troop leader Wendy. Wendy was my friend Kelly's mom. Wendy was not your typical Girl Scout troop leader, in any sense of the word. Wendy drove a black Mercedes and smoked cigarettes, back when it was still socially acceptable to do so. Dare I say she even made smoking look cool?  Wendy worked full time. She wasn't particularly crafty, although we still did crafts. She had long red nails and wore red lipstick. I'm sure we spent time talking about normal Girl Scout things like nature and ponies, but I remember one of our meetings turning into a full scale debate because one of the girls showed up wearing lipstick. I think we were in late elementary school at the time? Anyway, Wendy brought it up and we debated whether or not it was appropriate for a girl that age to wear colorful makeup. I admired Wendy in many ways. She was different - an archetype of the independent women of the late 80s/early 90s. The strangest thing about Wendy is that one day...she essentially disappeared. Left town with her family and we never heard from her again. Her husband was a cop; in fact, all our Girl Scout meetings were held in conference rooms in the Round Rock police station. We found out eventually that Wendy's husband had gotten a new assignment that required them to move across the county and cut ties with everything. Maybe the FBI? I'm not sure, but one thing I know is that very few Girl Scouts had a leader quite like Wendy.