Girl Scout Troop 354 was on the move again! We were, as usual, loaded in our troop mother’s station wagon and, this time, we were headed to the local Air Force base for a tour. What a treat!! I was on my best behavior, except for the two dirty looks I gave the obnoxious big red-headed girl, Betsy. (Six years later, she stepped on my foot during a high school basketball game and broke it. If I had known what was coming, I would have called her a few bad names that day.) 

As we were driving along and singing corny songs, one of the girls mentioned that she planned to tell some of the soldiers at the base how beautiful her sister was. That got me to thinking: my sister is better looking than her sister. I decided to use some slips of paper I had in my notebook to make up some little cards that read: For a good time, call my sister, Babs. She’s beautiful. 3242. (We had very simple phone numbers back then.) Calling her that was sort of ironic because, the day before, I had called her a word that was very different from beautiful. Anyway, I passed the little slips of paper out as we moved around the base. I remember giving a couple to two nice-looking young men who were sweeping; they couldn’t thank me enough. I didn’t put her age down (14) because I didn’t think it really mattered.

Not long after, a man in a uniform with lots of doo-dads hanging from it asked us if any of our fathers had been in the military. I spoke right up and said, “Yes! In fact, my dad was a Marine in World War II and he pretty much took out the enemy by himself.” The man with the doo-dads said, “I see” and then moved on to talk about something else (BORING!!)  Frankly, I didn’t like his attitude.

We finally ended our tour and I waved to all the nice men that I had met. I hummed all the way home because I felt good. When my troop mother pulled up in front of my house, I was surprised to see my dad standing in the driveway with his arms crossed. I gave him my usual cheery greeting and he responded by saying, “March yourself in the house right now!” I thought, “March? Gees, he’s got that military thing going on today, too.” I had no idea how true that was, but I was about to find out. It seems the phone had been ringing off the hook for my sister for the last couple of hours. It didn’t take my parents long to figure it out: Let’s see – Air Force guys are calling and LaVerne was at the Air Force base this afternoon with her Girl Scout troop. Bingo!

I didn’t see the Florida sun for the next 6 weeks because I was confined to quarters!