Once a Bluebird, always a Bluebird

Last Christmas my mom sent me four coffee mugs. each decorated with a different wild bird-a cardinal, chickadee, goldfinch, and a bluebird.

It wasn't that we didn't already have coffee mugs, in fact I tend to buy a coffee mug each time we go on a memorable vacation to serve later as a memory jogger. It's a great way to start the day: Memories of Hawaii, Alaska, whatever.
I also collect mugs from the colleges and universities that we have attended. And we have mugs from various companies that have soaked up our lives in return for paychecks.
Ah, the fond memories of the Enron days which are stirred every time someone grabs a cup of coffee in the mug with the crooked E.

Somehow last Christmas there just wasn't enough room in the cup cupboard for the bird mugs, so they got *temporarily* parked next to the coffeemaker.
Seven months later, and the birds are still perched on the counter.

It is easier to just grab a mug off the counter, and easier is becoming a favorite thing with me lately.

But I rarely leave anything at easy; instead each morning I take a second to decide which bird suits my mood.

This morning I first grabbed the mug with the yellow finch.
And put it back.
Then I grabbed the chickadee mug.
But the chickadee seemed too energetic to me.
I had been up late reading well past midnight.
The red cardinal was out, because, well, it was just too red today.

All along I had kind of wanted to go with the bluebird.
It is such a nice friendly and undemanding bird.
As I gave into my first impulse, my brain chirped up with a little tune, the word of which went like this:

To have fun.
To learn to make beautiful things.
To remember to finish what I begin.
To learn to keep my temper in.
And to learn about nature and living outdoors.
To have adventures with all sorts of things.
And make friends.

Actually I could only remember the first four lines and the last line.

Ah, I thought, the Campfire Girl Pledge!
My brain dutifully corrected me.

It was NOT the Camp Fire Girl Pledge.

The Camp Fire Girl pledge goes like this:

"Worship God (humm hummhum...) (the humming was like an echo to the worship God part.)
Seek Beauty
Give Service
And Knowledge pursue
Be trustworthy ever in all that you do
Hold fast onto health and your work glorify;
And you will be happy in the Law of Camp Fire!

The song that began with "To have fun.." was the BLUE BIRD pledge.

I had to sit down with my cup of coffee and think about this for a moment.
I had been a Blue Bird, a Camp Fire Girl, and a Junior High Camp Fire Girl.
In fact, I had earned the equivalent to an Eagle Scout badge in JHCFG.

I had proudly worn all the Camp Fire Girl related costumes.
(Note that the outfits were called "costumes" and not the guy sounding "uniforms" that the brown and green girl groups wore, much to our disgust. They also "marched" in parades like guys, while we "Girls" always rode in convertibles. Or at least that how we did it while I was growing up in La Jolla!)

Even the only picture that I could find of Camp Fire Girls and Blue Birds in Google images, showed the girls decidedly NOT marching!

Love the gloves too! We never had gloves, mores the pity. I guess you can't have everything.
Anyway, back to being a Blue Bird.

We wore cute little blue caps with short bills, (just like bluebirds have short bills, get it?), and red vest with little points in front, like a weskit. A short sleeved white blouse, and navy skirt, and white socks with pale blue bluebirds on the cuffs, that always stretched out and looked deformed after the first wearing if the socks were cotton.

Mine always were cotton, more healthy for feet, along with saddle shoes.
Some girls got to wear the neat fitting nylon socks with canvas tennis shoes. They looked a tad fast to me, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I digress.

The point is, my life was greatly shaped by those two pledges.
I have always been very serious about worshipping God, seeking beauty, serving, pursuing knowledge (that's what we librarians do best you know..) being trustworthy in everything, choosing a healthy lifestyle, and always giving work my very best.

As I drank my coffee, my mind travelled back to my Blue Bird years, the few years of first and second grade. My leader was Mrs. Snodgrass, who lived with her daughter Becky, a son and a husband in a huge house that was firmly in the grips of remodeling hell. My memories paints pictures of boxes everywhere, piles of stuff in between the boxes, old drapery being used as temporary walls, and a kitchen that didn't have much counter top. Sort of dingy too...the way big older rambling houses look when no one is trying very hard to keep it neat.

In the midst of this remodeling, Mrs. Snodgrass volunteered to take a group of us on to become Blue Birds. Each week we would arrive, and she would teach us about wild flower identification. We would roam the hills above La Jolla gathering specimens, and then carefully put them into flower presses, and then glued them onto large heavy paper pages, and neatly labeling the flowers. I had my book for years; the pages were held together with what I think were shoe laces strung through the two holes punched in the tagboard covers.

I still remember the thrill of finding a Shooting Star in bloom, and how cute Owl's Clover was, with a tiny owl face in each blossom.

Mrs. Snodgrass also had us create doll houses using cardboard boxes and scraps of wallpaper. I learned how to wall paper from her, using the icky wheat paste with the distinctive scent that I can remember to this very day.

We covered smaller boxes with fabric for furniture, and created dolls using pipe cleaners and crepe paper, trimming the doll's dresses with the exciting sequins and glitter.

Glitter was always a good thing.

Mrs. Snodgrass, in my memories, always wore large khaki shorts, and her greying hair was wildly unstyled. Her walking shoes were sensible, and I don't recall a trace of make up on her face. Her husband, who I believe was a scientist at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, would often meander into our meetings, nodding at us in the vague way that scientists always do, and it all seemed rather business as usual, the business being having fun.

"To have fun...."

"To learn to make beautiful things."

"To remember to finish what I begin."

"To want to keep my temper in"

"To learn about nature, and living outdoors."

"To have adventures with all sorts of things"

(Oh how I adore an opportunity for an adventure!)

"And make friends."

I think I have done very well keeping my Camp Fire Girl pledge these past forty plus years. I remember when we "flew up" from Blue Birds to Camp Fire Girls.

But you know something?

I'm ready to return to the nest.

I want to be a Blue Bird again.

I'm going to print out the Blue Bird Pledge and put it up on the refrigerator.

I'm going to make a copy for my bathroom mirror.

And I'm going to tuck a copy into the my purse.

I am going to make a pledge to keep the Blue Bird pledge, and start being a Blue Bird again.

Anyone out there want to join me?

Come on...it will be an adventure!

PS: I found another Blue Bird! She shows the handbook here on Two Straight Lines, and has also taken the pledge. Hurray!