Marian Seabold remembers when her mom baked Girl Scout cookies at home for her to sell.
They weren’t anything fancy like today’s Thin Mints or Tagalongs, just plain sugar cookies packaged in wax paper bags, sealed with a sticker and sold for 25 cents per dozen.
A St. Paul native, Seabold was born in a house in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood in 1917. She joined the Girl Scouts when she was 10, returning to lead when her daughter attended, then again when her granddaughter joined.
“My camping years were wonderful,” the 102-year-old said. “Lots of things I used years later were things I’d learned when I was 11 years old.”
Seabold was honored Saturday in White Bear Lake with a lifetime achievement award as one of the longest-serving Girl Scouts.
Daisys, Brownies, Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors crowded around Seabold’s wheelchair at The Lodge at White Bear to sing songs, eat cookies and hear her talk about the good old days.
“I dreamed I was back at Camp Lakamaga,” she said, and launched into a series of stories about swimming in the lake at night under the stars, learning to start a fire and surviving a “twister” that blew through the camp.
Girl Scouts had been on her mind lately. In hospice, due to her weak heart, she had a visit earlier this month from Patty Zenz, a St. Croix Hospice caregiver. Seabold noticed Zenz’s badge and asked her if she was with the River Valley Girl Scouts.
Zenz said “no,” but that she had been in Girl Scouts. As the two talked, Zenz learned how much Girl Scouts had been a part of Seabold’s life and connected her with the local troop.
Further checking showed that Seabold’s name was still in the Girl Scout’s computer records and had been on file for 92 years.
The local troop decided to combine their annual “Cookie Go Day” celebration, which marks the beginning of the month-long Girl Scout cookie sales season, with a party to honor Seabold for her service.
“I never thought in my wildest dreams …” Seabold said, grinning, looking out over the 30-plus Girl Scouts that turned out for the event. Seabold will turn 103 on March 14.
Seabold talked about her adventures traveling around North America with the Global Girl Scouts, visiting Idaho, Vermont and Montreal, among many other places. One of her vivid memories is stepping off a train in Chicago and being met by hundreds of Girl Scouts all singing “Do-Re-Mi” from the “Sound of Music.”
In the early days, she camped without a tent, lying on a cot surrounded by mosquito netting.
The Girl Scouts’ flag raising ceremonies taught her to always honor the American flag. She once saw a child carelessly lowering the flag and reached over to catch it before it touched the ground. A man, who had been in the military, stepped up to help as she automatically began folding the flag into triangles.
“He asked me, ‘What part of the service were you in?’ I said, ‘Girl Scouts,’ ” she said, laughing.
Her most memorable badges earned were the Baby Care, Nursing and Red Cross badges because she liked being able to know what to do in an emergency.
She never got the badge for signaling with flags and struggled with the badge for rescuing a drowning person. As she grew older, she was amazed at how much she used the information she’d learned in Girl Scouts.
“We were using what we’d learned from other leaders and passing it on to the next generation,” she said. Looking out over the crowd, she told the younger girls, “I hope you all grow up to be Girl Scout leaders.”
