You Might be a Green Neck If...

A few years ago, the WAGGGS-L e-mail list got caught up in a discussion of strange behaviors by "true" Girl Guides/Girl Scouts ("green necks"). The items laughingly submitted were collected by Nancy W., an adult Girl Scout from Illinois. Her Girl Scout web site disappeared, so (with her permission) I'm posting the collection she originally put together...

Some of these are mildly amusing, some are absolutely hysterical, and some ...well, apparently you had to be there! This is a relatively complete list, with no attempt to "winnow the chaff". If you want to use all or part of this list, some editing will be required.

You may be a green-neck if . . .

The majority of your wardrobe consists of GS t-shirts.
You own handbooks for older levels that you (or your daughter) haven't reached yet.
You still have every piece of paper relating to GS that's crossed your threshold.
Your kids have posted your name to a milk carton as missing [when you're actually at GS events].
You have green blood (it's not just for Vulcans).
You've gained more than 5 pounds during cookie time.
Your family eats fast food more than twice a week because of GS meetings.
You can't find last year's tax return but you know exactly where the instructions are for the Christmas angel craft.
You can't say no when an event needs planning.
People stop you at the market to ask how to join Girl Scouting/Guiding.
You always say, "Of course we have room for one more girl."
You never throw out ANYTHING without first thinking 'Could the troop use this in some way?'
You make campfire foods at home and serve them to your family to try out new recipes.
You take paper out of the recycling bin at your office because you know the scouts can use it for their next project.
You buy bizarre craft items at craft stores if they're on sale because you're sure that someday you'll use them.
Any of your kid's old crayons, scissors, glue that they're ready to throw out goes into the 'bucket' for the troop.
Your garage looks like a camp store.
At least one room in your house ALWAYS has some kind of Girl Scout paperwork strewn all over it.
You ask every place you visit if they do anything special for Girl Scouts for tours.
Your son knows all the Girl Scout songs (although he probably wouldn't admit it to any of his friends...).
You know at least 3 other adult members/leaders phone numbers for memory.
You buy things because they are 'girl scout' colors.
You have a recurring nightmare that your awards ceremony is coming up, and you have a pile of patches and badges and no clue who earned them.
Your husband registers as an adult member so he can see you now and then.
You buy office furniture for your home to file, store, and organize all your scouting "stuff"!
People stop you at work to buy cookies...in July...and you HAVE some.
You introduce your daughters by program level.
You buy a pair of slacks or socks because they match the color of your uniform.
You bring your daughter's handbook on vacation to see if you can knock off a few try-it/badge/IPP requirements.
You have your council's phone number on speed dial.
You can't remember a relative's birthday, but you do remember Juliette Low's.
You donate to AFG every year to make sure you can keep your collection of mugs current.
You plan your vacation around the council's day camp schedule.
You not only recruit your niece into Brownies, but get your sister to lead her troop!
You shop at the council store for birthday party gifts.
You save the cores from toilet paper and paper towels, scraps of gift wrap paper and wallpaper, scraps of ribbon, fabric, and yarn, film canisters, and the gold wrappers from Boy Scout candy bars (to make origami flowers) for the Gold Award ceremony.
You ask your colleagues and friends to save any or all of the above.
When attending college you roast mini marshmallows on a paper clip over a candle to make mini s'mores in your dorm room while singing "Rise Up O Flame."
After the hurricane/tornado/earthquake/flood knocks out your power you are happy as a clam cooking for the neighbors with your vagabond stove and cardboard box oven.
You buy a storage shed just to have enough room to keep troop supplies.
Your husband is afraid to take out the trash until you check it for possible craft materials.
You carry the troop telephone list, a first aid kit, paper towels, wet wipes, and a "lost and found" box in your car.
You have sorted out the badges for all twenty girls in your troop for the awards ceremony tomorrow, but you haven't sewn on your daughter's badges from the last ceremony.
Every girl in the troop has read the latest troop newsletter except your daughter, because she was asleep when you finally finished typing it and you forgot to give her one.
You have two grocery sacks filled with styrofoam meat trays in the garage just in case you might need them for something.
Your living room is full of camping equipment.
You can recite your council's "permission slip form" from memory.
You have a bookcase full of Girl Scout related reference materials.
You save your dryer lint to make fire starters.
When somebody points to any one of the girls in your troop and asks "Is that your kid?", you automatically say, "Yes!"
When You use the saying "my girls" yet you only have 1 daughter...
Or even better - when you use the saying "my girls" and you don't have *any* children!
When the family picnic gets rained out and all adults look at you when the children start running crazy...(or any holiday for that matter..)
And you think up a craft using paper bags, paper plates or whatever is handy?
Friends or relives call you up with so-so's birthday party and they want it to be a princess party!! You can help with crafts and decorations!!
Find your self asking do you give discounts to girl scout troops. . . at a sport shop? (Hey they had camping stuff on sale...)
You can line your girls up in alphabetical order without looking.
Your family vacation is going camping with your troop.
You have more photos of your troop than of your family.
AND the troop photos are all nicely pasted in albums, and the family pix are in shoeboxes!
You get really excited when you find out that your dad is still saving coffee cans behind your mother's back!
You get upset when your husband dares to think that he can use that tuna can you have been saving.
You encourage your kids to eat tuna fish sandwiches to get the empty cans.
It takes a couple of hours to answer when your friends ask you to help come up with an outdoor cooking recipe for the "ladies only" camping trip as you have to have to run through all of your files!
You have a big red S on your forehead.
You have forgotten how to say NO, or how to spell it!
In looking for a new home, you try to find one that has an extra room to store your GS stuff in!!
You design and build a key hole fire place in your back yard. ...for the troop! ...just to practice! ...ok, for yourself.
When you plan a vacation to a different area of the country, you try to figure out a way to convince your husband to side track to the nearest council office for a visit and to check out if they have something your council doesn't have (ceremonies, special patches, etc.).
When, on a weekend hop, you try and convince your partner that you really should go on thursday, so that you have friday to check out that council, after you could get lost!
And don't forget to convince him to meet your online friends living in that area!
You beg your husband for the latest computer equipment to use just for yourself so you have more room to add as much girl scout information as you can possibly find on the internet.
You get up real early to check your e-mail for the WAGGGS list and then spend the next hour checking through all your information to e-mail back to those in need of information you have stored somewhere.
The main reason you are on an internet is to find all the Girl Scout information you could possibly want or need. Then you store it on 25 different disks, labeled appropriately (ceremonies, games, songs, websites, etc.) for that time when you need it.
You see the above posted by a true Green Neck and you've got to imprint it into your brain as it's a very good Girl Scout idea to share!!
Neighborhood children come to your house all summer long asking "Got any gimp?" and you always do.
Co workers ask if you've got: an aspirin, a needle and thread, a safety pin...and you always do!
You got tears in your eyes reading the descriptions of the Sing-along.
You were a scout from age 7 to age 18.
You were a Sea Explorer Scout from 18 to 21 because your Mariner Ship was cross-registered (the only all-girl SE ship, I might add) so you could keep doing Girl Scout activities.
You were absolutely estatic your first year of college to buy cookies from your dorm advisor's daughter because it was the first time in 11 years you didn't have to sell cookies.
You haven't been a registered Girl Scout for almost 10 years, but when you were out on the 'Net looking for craft ideas for work and stumbled across the WAGGGS-L address you immediately subscribed. And, now, ~three months later, you still read every Digest when it comes in at work, even if the boss is walking by (my monitor faces away from the door :-) ) because you're gathering all sorts of ideas for that time, somewhere in the future, when you'll be leading your own daughter's troop.
You have been waiting with bated breath for the new IPP books to come out, then bought the first one when they did, but have not had time to read it yet.
You and your family of 7 are drinking all of your milk out of quart waxed cardboard containers because you saw this really cool way to cook hotdogs from the cyber cookbook and you need 30 containers by September!
You have at least one saucepan that is a little black round the outside, despite hours of scrubbing?
Most of your cutlery has the remnants of nail-varnished initials from last year's camp?
You quickly take a Lifetime Membership for yourself AND dh before the rate increases in order to save $$.
Troop equipment lives in your car (van/truck).
Everyone always asks you if you have a ..... (and you do, or can find it).
Your planning calendar has ALL the Girl Scout/Guide events entered in it (for the next 3-6 months) but not the business meeting tomorrow.
You go in to the office early just to read the WAGGGS-L (after chatting past midnite on #wagggschat).
You have a troop/Service Unit Web site but not one for you or your family.
When you maintain several Girl Scout websites, and not one for yourself.
The other clubs website you maintain has links to the Girl Scout sites.
The director of your service unit's day camp calls you at eleven o'clock at night on Sunday telling you that late registrations have doubled the size of day camp- from 46 to 92- and asks "Can you serve as camp councilor, and by the way your older girl would like to get some program aide hours in, wouldn't she? Camp's on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday"... And you say 'Yes' then scramble to find a sitter for your own younger child...
The Council Program director calls you at three in the afternoon to talk about a new project that she needs a committee to think out policies for, and you agree to serve...
At a leader's recognition event, the Executive Director of the Council invites leaders to keep in closer touch with the office, then looks directly at you and says with a smile, "That doesn't mean you." Then explains to the group that she regularly hears from you on Council business via e-mail...
A fellow leader calls you, desperate, saying that the older girl troop who was supposed to come to conduct bridging for her brownies never showed up, and you grab your older scout and arrive there within 15 minutes...
You can't use your front entrance because the entryway is filled from floor to ceiling with craft materials, some new, some remnants of other crafts...
You run into teenage girls who had been part of your troops when they were brownies or juniors and the girls hug you...
At your daughter's wedding, the 26 year old Matron of Honor drags her husband over to you and says, "Honey, I want you to meet my Girl Scout Leader!"
You are at an event as a participant and other leaders mistake you for event staff.
At a Basic Leader training and the trainer is asked about internet sites for GS she tells everyone to contact you about that information...my daughter couldn't believe it and my co-leader who was at the same training tried very hard to hide her amusement! I was in the building at a different training session.
You've been copying and pasting this thread into your word processing program.
One consideration while buying your next vehicle is "how many girls with sleeping bags and backpacks can I fit in this thing"?
You attend a large parade with the rest of your family--they are all oohing and aahing over the floats and marching bands--while you are craning your neck to be the first to call out (with mother tears in your eyes) "HERE COME THE BROWNIES!" (irregardless of whether your daughter is one of the Brownies or not!)
You live on Daisy Lane (as anyone who has traded patches with me already knows).
You still have a sign in your kitchen window that says "It's Girl Scout Cookie Time." And it is still Girl Scout cookie time based on the number of boxes still on hand.
3 months after the cookie sale's official end, your kids are begging you to buy some different cookies at the store.
You make the rounds at all the local dollar stores periodically just to see if there might be something interesting to make swaps or crafts with.
You make the rounds at a half dozen or so used book stores every 4 to 6 months to see if you can find any old Girl Scout handbooks.
You buy rolls of wallpaper from the clearance bin for a dollar or two a roll with no specific project in mind, you just know you'll think of some way the girls can use it. (This may also include almost any item in a clearance bin for a dollar or two.)
You see a post regarding crystals and spend 20 minutes looking for that booklet you got at WOW (Weekend of Workshops)...I know it's here somewhere!!!!
Your family tours Europe and you HAVE to see PAX Lodge and Our Chalet, and your husband says, "Wouldn't this be a great experience for our daughters?"
You hunt garage sales for troop equipment, and you have your friends keep their eyes open too!
You hunt used book stores for anything that would help your troop. (I found "30 Paper Airplanes" and thought, "Aha! The Aerospace badge!")
You and your daughters love practicing all their outdoor skills, using their Girl Scout training, whenever the family goes camping. (Love those dunk bags!)
You go through magazines like "Family Fun" and collect all the ideas that would be terrific for your girls (and yes, my troop is "my girls!") (Be sure to check out the latest June/July special issue--there's how to make a doll's house and furniture out of everyday items, a wind toy, a fingerpaint recipe, an obstacle course, friendship bracelets, wind chimes, and a sun dial, among other things!)
You are watching Xena, Warrior Princess (which is soooo bad that it is good), as they are in some encampment, and think "nice lashing!".
After filling in your calendar with the up-coming Girl Scout meetings and events for the next 12 months you turn to your husband/mate and say you will not volunteer for another thing and he/she just laughs!
The last 20 times you have gotten a babysitter it was so that you could attend Girl Scout meetings and events and not once for a night out with your hubby!
Everyone you meet in the grocery store knows of your participation in scouting and needs advice on something and you know the answer.
Every time you see a cute stuffed animal in a store you wonder "Would this make a great troop mascot?"
You frantically look through gift shops for a souvenir patch or pin and get upset if they don't have any.
You have several hats...all with swaps hanging on them.
You are determined to get a council patch/guide badge from all over the world...no matter how much it costs!!
You ask yourself EVERY year if you are going to be a leader again..after a long exhausting scouting year..you ponder..then say..might as well do it again as you get a big hug from one of your scouts.
You are a volunteer for several scouting positions.
You are hosts to scouts/guides visiting your area.
Your tape player in your car has the tape.."Still Singing After All These Years" still in it.
After a major ice storm that brings down hundreds of trees you think "Wow, we're set for firewood for a long time"
At your end of the year trainer dinner you get talked into doing just one more Basic Leader Training on Saturday (and yes, that WAS me you heard cheering because I was done until September).
Your training schedule is already fuller than almost everyone elses (except those other two people who are soooo lucky to be on the same training team) and while you're at the final SUM meeting at the council office you get talked into doing a Basic 8 and Level I Outdoor training for the 1st week in September. (I'm sure I said no more trainings - didn't I? )
Your husband offers to find you a remedial class in how to say no and mean it, but you just can't fit it into your schedule.
After fussing because you're always busy doing Girl Scouts, your husband buys you a new sleeping bag for Christmas, and his idea of a vacation is definately NOT camping. (Now how do I get him to build me a storage shed all my own?)
Your family comes home with great flea market and garage sale finds because they were sure you could find something to do with it for Girl Scouts. "I saw this bag of material they were actually giving away and I thought of you." "You did say you were looking for a food dehydrator didn't you?" "I found this whole bag of tennis racket presses for a quarter - can't you figure out a way to make flower presses out of them?" (And you did!)
Your dad, who is a cross country trucker, knows just what truck stop to stop at to get you some more of those great big pine cones you're always looking for AND takes the time to pick you a whole bag full, even though they bite!
When your sister goes to Florida for vacation and brings you home a huge bag of Spanish Moss and you're thrilled!
The Council Historians stop you while you're at the council offices and tell you they'd like your patch jacket for the archives "when you're done with it" and when you tell your family, your daughter says "No way - we're going to lay you out in it when you're gone - that way you can be a Girl Scout forever and wear it in Heaven because then we'll know you're happy." (that one made me laugh and cry all at the same time.)
People stop you as you leave a meeting and thank you for sitting in front of them - when things got boring they just "read" your patch jacket!
When everyone at the council office teases you about how much time on the computer but know just who to ask when they're looking for something special.
Your teenage daughters beg you NOT to wear your patch jacket into the grocery store after your troop meeting and you don't. Then while you're standing in the checkout line the checkout girl says "I know you - wait a minute, I know - You're the Girl Scout leader with all the patches on your jacket." And yes those were my daughters you saw "just dying of embarrassment."
You stop into the grocery store on your way home from Brownies every week and you can't figure out why the checkout girl keeps looking at you funny and then finally she asks you how many kids you actually have. (I took different girls home every week and they thought they were all mine - well they are aren't they?)
You're on your way home from a Girl Scout Lock-In and stop at Ames and the grocery store and then finally go through the drive-through at McDonald's and discover you still have a large red heart painted on your cheek when you catch sight of yourself in the mirror they have positioned to see how long the line is. And yes that was my troop that laughed for the rest of the trip home because they hadn't told me why everyone had stared at me while we shopped. (I just figured I must have looked exhausted after being up all night!)
Your brother calls you up long distance to tell you his beaded car seat just broke and if you want them he'll save all the beads for you and when you see him the next time he not only brings the beads but he also has taken the time to separate them all for you (VBG!)
Your dog has puppies and you agree to let your daughter keep one AND name her "Daisy" after Daisy Girl Scouts!!
You use that room that was so cool and would make a terrific pantry to store camp/firstaid/etc/etc - just for a short time - and 7 years on...
Husband and son both "volunteer" their weekend in November to teach Patrol Leaders photography.
Your shop counter has Guide Shortbread and Fudge for sale instead of films.
Your friends, with whom you are planning an October holiday in Arizona, ask "Have you found out the Girl Scouts stores addresses yet" - and you answer "yes"?
You get up an extra hour early and end up spending the whole morning returning email from all your WAGGGS-L friends!
You wear girl scout shirts all the time to promote the program! Hey the sweaters are nice enough to wear to church!
You work full time and take a week vacation to work at day camp!
When choosing which colleges to apply to you ignore the ones in rural areas as they might not have any guide units nearby for you to help with!
You're from a Girl Scout council in NY and you're a webmaster for a council in Texas
You sign online and get IM'd by one of your graduated Seniors who starts out with "Hi Mom" and you ::sniff::.
You're planning a Juliette's birthday chat and have no plans so far for your daughter's 18th birthday that weekend.
You go into the local drugstore feeling very bad from the flu, and looking so bad your family hardly recognizes you, and the teenage girl checking you out says "I know you, I'm Jessica, you were my Brownie Leader!" and you feel instantly recovered.
You save every single paper and every report from the Girl Scout board meetings and committees for the last six years, just in case you should need it, or if the office needs a copy of something when the council performance review rolls around. You lost your daughters social security card.
You scrutinize the council financial statements and fund balances and have them committed to memory but couldn't guess what your checking account balance is at any one point in time.
You spend more time on wagggschat than you do talking to your family, and your primary method of communication with your daughter is email. (Beats posting notes on the fridge!)
Your daughter's leader has her daughter email your daughter to email you about troop news because your phone is always tied up - well we have to read WAGGGS-L sometime. You email her back for news for the association homepage.
Your Cadettes and Seniors plead with you to scrape the Girl Scout bumper sticker off your car.
Your Co-Leader's youngest daughter's troop needs a leader, so the two of you step up, only you don't have a youngest daughter!
You find yourself *wearing out* dunk bags.
Your husband wears his Outstanding Volunteer pin as a tie tack and carries a picture of *his* troop in his wallet.
Your troop has its own account with the state camping reservations center.
You still can find the campers newsletter from resident camp circa 1970
You still have the songbook you put together your first year at GS camp in 1964 ( and I still have the flashes from the camp uniform that year).
You can't walk past a co-workers (or neighbor's) trash can without checking it out for useful items.
The moving truck and the cookie truck arrive at your house at the same time and the cookie truck takes priority, then while unpacking your belongings three weeks later you discover that the packers diligently packed your trash inside the trash can.
The greeting in your answering machine provides details regarding troop upcoming events.
Your recycle bin has Swap potential.
While moving, (military family) you hand carry your GS manuals, uniforms and records.
When packing for a family trip, you have swaps, patches, mascot, girls addresses but forget to pack PJ's. No problem, you have your collection of camp T-shirts.
You are known as the Girl Scout Lady.
Your husband communicates with you through emails, and carries a GS membership card.
You make extra permission slips up for girls that will lose theirs, then save any unused ones to white-out the old trip information and to fill in again for the next trip, so as not to waste paper.
You plan your trip to see your grown son and his family during the summer around the times when your co-leader will also be out of town so you can still get in the maximum amount of summer activities with the troop.
Your cleaning lady asks you before throwing away cat food cans and plastic milk containers.
You have 5 cookie cartons in your office full of old Girl Scout papers to sort out the troop "did these" from the "possibles" and the "service team business" in your spare time.
You tell your homeschooling friends they should register as Girl Scouts with their daughters so they will be able to use the great badge activities as part of their curriculum.
Your dining room center piece is a Girl Scout craft, experiment, or other activity!
Your husband brings home the old copier from work, fixes it up, and gives it to you so that you don't have to keep running to the store every week to make copies of newsletters, forms, articles, etc.
You can't walk into a craft or dollar store without purchasing supplies for your troop.
You find something that looks interesting or fun and think "Now what can we use this for? Will it help us earn any of the try-its?".
You find something like the wagggs list and get so excited that you call your co-leader to tell her about it even though it's after 11:00 p.m.!
You can't go on a day trip with your family without thinking "This would be a great place to take my girls! Do they have group rates?".
When your husband comes home from work early every Tuesday so that he can watch your 4 year old daughter while you're at your troop meeting.
You take your troop on a camping trip and it rains the entire time but you come home saying "We had a great time!"
Every time you talk to your co-leader your conversation always turns to "Next year we should..." or "I thought of a great idea for next year!"
You do nothing but grumble about how busy you are with all your girl scout activities but when the year is over you are so bored that you start working on projects for the following year.
.When your girls bridge your heart swells with pride and you begin to tear.
You find you are humming to yourself......and it's a Girl Scout song!
You start going into work at 6 am to have some quiet time to change GS lesson plans, try out new arts/crafts, plan hikes and field trips.
Your husband buys you a Canon copier for Christmas just to keep up with all the copy you have to run for the Service Unit!
You still volunteer in your unit after you've gotten a job at the Council office.
You kept right on being SUM for 8 years after your only child (daughter) graduated from high school.
Your pocket calendar (a GS one!) has your co-leader's weekend work schedule for the whole year so you know when you can go on scouting field trips.
You buy a new van, and your daughter tells you, "hey, mom, you bought a Girl Scout van!" as she is pointing to the GS on the back (it's a GS model!).
You go on holiday with your husband to Switzerland, within half a dozen or so miles of Our Chalet, and you are forbidden to visit Our Chalet because he had had enough of Brownies/Guiding in general all year, and there was no way he was going to have more during his holiday!!!
You have all of your girl scout paper work in categorized binders..( IE trainings, camp, leaders troop book, ideas, service unit ETC.)
You have an Ideas binder made up of all of the project, receipe, song, trip, swap, craft ideas you have copied, pasted and printed from the Wagggs list and other scout sites...
You DH wonders why you drive 50 miles to the council office to pick up council patches to trade on the spur of the moment.....
You rock your baby to sleep with old Girl Scout songs.
In cooing over babies and toddlers in the checkout line, you ask the child's age and then say, "In just ____ years she can be a Daisy Girl Scout!"
When you are planning to move and you are notifying all the business of your change of address, your Girl Scout Council ranks up there with electricity and telephone.
When you move, the computer is one of the first things to go to the new place, so you can keep caught up with your WAGGS-L's.
When buying a car you demand to know if you could fit three tea-chests of Guide equipment and two tents in the trunk and still have room for personal gear and the Guidecase ? !!!
The copy store clerk looks at the money in your hand, blinks and says "You mean this isn't for your troop?
You get phone calls from strangers who heard from a friend that you have great craft ideas...and you put dinner on hold so you can track them down.
You get a feeling of profound sadness when you meet a scout-age girl who isn't interested in Girl Scouting.
The neighbor has saved three huge garbage bags full of foam rubber pieces for you...and within 60 seconds you've thought of a dozen different ways to use them.
You know flag etiquette better than anyone else around.
You chew out the camp director for not recycling plastic water bottles even though it would mean having to haul huge bags down the mountain every week, and she sheepishly hangs her head and makes arrangements to do so.
You hear someone say "ask Sue" and you know they need to borrow something...and you have it with you (or in your car).
The people who just referred others to you shrug and say "She's a Girl Scout leader" and no further explanation is needed.
You carry extra garbage bags in your car, just in case.
The checkers at the grocery store get upset for you for not coming through their line earlier in the week...after all, they wanted to order cookies!
You take lots of time telling a Girl Scout who is moving to your area from halfway cross the country all about their new city...and they end up being your co-leader.
Your training director asks you if you can track down a handout called "Troop 500" and you just smile and nod and have a reply by the next day.
You can name all the cookies offered by both bakers and what the price ranges for cookies are across the country.
You see a stranger do something in a certain way and feel led to ask "Were you a Girl Scout?"...and she was!
You turn every trip to the grocery store, park, museum, etc into a recruiting event.
You can look past the dog collar, pierced nose, and purple hair and say "We'd love to have you in our troop"...and mean it!
You're at the museum and tell kids you don't know that they shouldn't be going anywhere without a buddy.
Your extra adult doesn't show up to help drive and you ask your husband, and he gladly turns off a football game to help.
You get really excited when the council store gets a new T-shirt in.
The ladies in the Wal-Mart craft section start asking you for ideas and referring their customers to you, too.
You stop Girl Scouts where ever you see them so you can check out their badges.
You feel sorry for the adults who have never taken the time to be a leader and discover how wonderful it can be.
People see you carrying a stuffed animal around and they don't even blink because it's old hat.
You carry Buffy Beaver onto the plane and take photos of her on the flight ?!!
You sit Kerri Bear in the car and put a belt on her? !!
You wear your swaps on your hat and then wear the hat to meet people so that they know who you are ?!!
You have a house full of things because folk insist that *You* are the one who knows where these things will be useful or to which charity to send them ?!!
You go on a picnic to the beach with family and end up playing with two of your brownies ---and loving it.
You drive to the airport, park and haul your own 4 kids and a tag inside to wait in a terribly long line to get cheap airfare to attend the National Convention. After an hour, the little girl belonging to the lady in front of you say "mommy, I have to go to the bathroom" Upon seeing the look on the lady's face, you tell her to keep her place in line and send your own children with the little girl as "buddies".
Shopping at the council shop, you think "What here could be a future collectible?"
You have everybody in your family searching flea markets, garage sales, antique stores and auctions for old Girl Scout memorabilia.
You get excited when you get an old, rusty Girl Scout First Aid Kit for your birthday.
Your almost-20 years old son introduces himself at his new job with, "Wow! Weren't you a Brownie Brother in Troop 33?"
You ask your husband to build a storage cupboard three shortbread boxes wide and a caramel delight deep, and with a tall section on the side for flags, and he knows exactly what you mean, and he does it, and it's too small before it is finished.
When you need a new car, you only look at the ones that will hold seven or more people (plus luggage rack, of course). You're a REAL green-neck if you take along parts of uniforms to match the color and upholstery of the car!
You notice that ALL your clothes in the closet are blue or green.
When you want to plan a vacation, you first look to see where you still need to get patches.
All the employees at the local copy center know you by name.
You have business cards made up with your title - GS/GG VOLUNTEER!
The smell of Lysol always reminds you of camping (latrines, you know!)
When you read a recipe in a magazine you immediately convert it for cooking outdoors!
You set up a solar stove and a box oven for cooking at home in summer.
You go to the liquor store for the boxes! (box ovens, of course)
You find out you will be moving to a new state and you call the new council ....... THEN the realtor and moving company!
You buy an extra hard drive for your computer to hold all the postings you want to save from WAGGGS-L!
After the year is over you find yourself going through withdrawal and writing letter after letter to the WAGGGS list!
When your daughter is at camp you're already planning next year's camping experience.
It's hard to wheedle a book token out of friends (and husbands :) ) for your birthday because "We want to ge
My husband makes me promise to spend it on a book I can't possibly use for Guides - but I usually manage to get something multipurpose :)
You *save* the underwires that work their way out of your sports bras in the wash, and try to think of a way they can be made into a craft or toy.
An extended electrical outage doesn't faze you! You just trot out to the garden shed and bring in the camp stove and fuel, dig out the instant coffee and camp coffee pot from the camp kitchen, and have the kids find the Coleman lanterns - then sit on the porch in the evening and watch the lightning bugs and stars come out, instead of another dumb TV show!
You make a contribution to the annual giving campaign of both your current council and the one you grew up in.
You ring your husband while shopping to tell him about a great answering machine on special and you think we ought to have one. And he says buy it if its got call monitoring and he doesn't have to answer all those 'Guide' calls before our meetings on a Thursday night.
You decide after five wonderful, yet tough, Girl Scout packed years to take a year off from leading, until the Fall when your daughter's "new" leader begs you to be an assistant.
You are thrilled to have the next year off after assisting for two years, yet happier when you open your mouth and offer to take the troop next year for the three girls who are "lost" after many tries at getting into a sister troop.
It's the wee hours of the morning and you are online reading the "list" and submitting "green neck" posts. : )
You say you are "unloading all this stuff from my house" then go out the next day and bring home more!
You have told your Junior Girl Scout daughter, that she may quit scouting at any time. However, you will not quit with her.
You beam with pride as you watch your daughter lead Brownies and not need your assistance at all! Then you realize she *is* a green neck, too!!
After a heart-breaking two hours of verbal abuse by several "will find anything wrong parents", you do not quit... you move forward... and upward in Girl Scout volunteering.
You do *not* council-bash, knowing it is in poor taste and not the Girl Scout way!
You continue to seek ways to serve the Girl Scout program.
You wonder who would be good at designing signs we could all post in our yards saying, "A Green Neck Lives Here" or "A Blue Neck Lives Here".
You decide to purchase a Badge-A-Minit machine to make buttons saying, "I'm a Green Neck by Choice!"
the local church bells start playing "Battle Hymn of the Republic"..... and you find yourself singing the words to "Pink Pajamas."
You start your first day on your brand-new job, and when handed the employee handbook, immediately turn to the 'solicitation policy' so you can find out if you can sell GS cookies on the job!
While on vacation with your family you borrow a computer to download your E-mail just to get your WAGGGS-L Digests.
You arrange your vacation around Girl Scout Day Camp and your troops meetings and your family vacation is the last on the list.
You read travel magazines to think of places to take your troop when they are older.
You post a message on the patch board late at night and within 20 minutes you have three replies already.
You hear your daughter say to her friend "I don't think we can have computer time tonight because my Mom needs some more patches."
You have a friend get patches from a friend for you to trade from another council, and she is not even a patch trader.
When going on vacation your husband asks if there is a council in the town we're going to, because if there is he knows he already gets time to watch the kids while you "shop".
You work at the Girl Scout office and take two weeks off and wear a different Girl Scout T-shirt everyday.
You carry spare Girl Scout paper work and books in a rubber maid container in your trunk just in case you run into somebody who needs something.
your family has to ask you if there is a meeting you need to attend first so they know what they can plan for the night or week.
You go back and check the issue of WAGGGS-L just to see if there really wasn't a green neck post in that issue.
You go to a meeting/training and say "I'll see you in two hours" and your husband says "I'll see you in three hours" because he knows you will be there that extra hour just talking to others about Girl Scouts.
You update your home page to put "family" on it because you have a twinge of guilt (from reading the green neck posts) because most of it is Girl Scouts.

Or . . . Your Daughter may be a green-neck if . . .

You find her in her room, Brownie handbook open, learning the Promise in sign language. She tells you (in a tone which implies the simplest person would think of this) she is doing this in case she ever can't talk during a meeting, she can still 'say' the promise!
The only way she will go to sleep is to sing "GIRL SCOUT CAMP" and "LITTLE BAR OF SOAP".

Or . . . Your Mom may be a green-neck if . . .

she stops you on the side of the road to pick up aluminum cans, foil, etc.

Or . . . Your Wife may be a green-neck if . . .

She spends an extra 50 dollars to get a Girl Scouts Florida License Plate for the car.
She buys a van just for camping trips for Girl Scouts.
She turns your favorite hang out spot (the garage) into a Girl Scout storage area.
She goes through camping withdrawal syndrome and pitches a tent in the back yard and camps out with the kids.
She and the other co-leaders buy their own life vests for renting canoes.
She asked for a two room tent on your anniversary ( and gets it).
She asks for a canoe for her birthday.
She goes camping when she is 9 months pregnant.
She owns more girl scouts T-shirts than she does dresses.
She start rubbing off on her spouse.
After buying a van for Girl Scouting she announces that she needs a trailer for the camping equipment so she can put more people in the van.
You pull out your tackle box, to go fishing, and find out your wife's turned it into a trainer's box.
You look for your new fishing line you bought two weeks ago and find out it is now on lots of mobiles.
You get a call from a woman, you don't know, saying that she is a Girl Scout Leader and your wife's number is all she has and would you come to the council to jump start her car, at 10 at night.
Your wife's idea of a romantic weekend get away is being alone in a hootie at Family Work Weekend getting ready for resident camp.
You buy the sexiest night shirt with the camp logo on it, for your wife to wear on your anniversary, and find out she wanted the blue one.
The last time you saw your wife in another color, other then Green, was on your wedding day.
You go to the hall closet, to get your hunting suit, and 15 sit-upons fall on your head.
You get to the deer lease, with your camper, and find all the sleeping bags are not in it anymore. That is when you remember the Girl Scout camp-out the last weekend. You look and the flashlights are not there, and your hunting knife is gone, also.
You get a call from the council ED asking you to go to lunch with her and her staff. You accept as it will be a chance to see the wife as she is on staff. After lunch, the ED asks if you will be care-taker of camp. And you do not even like Chinese food.........and got rooked into a non-paying job on top of it.

Even your Husband may be a green-neck if . . .

He contacts the council in the town your moving to before you even have a place to live.

Men, you too might be a green-neck if . . .

You have the sharpest knife in the deer camp because you taught 25 Girl Scouts how to sharpen it in a knife safety session at day camp.
You have seen the inside of church more for Girl Scout ceremonies than for worship service.
The good-looking blonde, that honked at you last week, turned out to have been in your Junior troop seven years ago.
You get a wedding announcement addressed to "Country and Melody Kirby," your camp names because you are a Texas cowboy and she can sing like a bird.
You were in the military for 21 years and you have a 25 year Girl Scout pin and more awards from the Girl Scouts than Military.
All your garage sale items are packed in cookie boxes.
You are the only man on your bowling team that has been a cookie chairman.
Your yard equipment has been used more at camp than on your yard.
A Girl Scout rings your door bell to sell you Girl Scout Cookies and you show her the 20 cases your daughter has in the hall, but you buy a box anyway.
You collect ball caps and find out you have more Girl Scout caps then any other kind.
Your wife brings you a T-shirt from the National Convention that has "Volunteer" on the sleeve and you go down and have an "ed" added to the end of it.
You have voted for more Council Presidents than for Presidents of the U.S.
You get asked to adjust a ceiling fan in the Council Big Room and wind up putting in three-bulb light fixtures on all eight fans.
You know more about setting up a day camp or work weekend then you know about the Internet.
Your only person you talk to on-line, other than your family, is a woman and she is a Girl Scout.
Your wife calls and says that she forgot her purse and would you bring it to the Annual Meeting being held at the college and you do, and then find yourself as a delegate, because they did not have enough, and then you get a delegate package for the next 9 years.
You go to buy a riding lawn mower and when you get it home you find out it is a John Deere and matches most of your shirts.
You know all the words to " Alice the Camel " and "Girl Scouts Together" but can not remember your high school fight song.
You have more Girl Scout pins on your fishing hat than fishing flies.
Your grandkids know the Girl Scout Promise but not their own phone number. (Not to worry, they know their Girl Scout Leader's phone number )
You have a 32 button phone fast dial and 20 of them are Girl Scout numbers and you do not have two of your sisters on there or 911 either.
You start to build a deer stand and find your power saw needs a new blade because it was so dull from the last family work week end repairing hooties.
You go to a 4th of July Celebration and say the Pledge of Allegiance and automatically raise three fingers for the Girl Scout Promise.
You spend more hours on the computer, making signs for the council's 85th Girl Scout celebration than you did on your college courses.
You know more Girl Scout facts, from making the signs, than your wife.
You have more green and blue shirts than you have any other color.
Your show horse has logged more time at Girl Scout events than she has in the show arena.
They call you to Sub-teach P.E. at an elementary school and the girls call you by your camp name instead of Coach.
Your kids come in from school and ask, " What is for supper tonight, Dad?" You say, " I don't know, Mom doesn't have a meeting tonight so she is going to cook." They say, " Dad, please don't let Mom cook tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!! "
You have to remove all the Girl Scout stuff from the trunk of the car to load the suitcases for a vacation. ( If it is one of our vacations, just leave it in there )
Your Boy Scout brother-in-law calls to tell you the details of the family reunion, and you spend two hours exchanging campfire recipes.

And finally, you know you're a green-neck if . . .

You know this list could go on and on and on and on.
You bookmark this site and send the URL to your friends saying, "See? I'm not the only one!"
You can't read your e-mail without opening up an html editor so you can easily cut and paste into this Green/Blue-neck page!

With thanks to all the WAGGGS-L members who contributed to this: Roberta A., John A., Jan B., Ann B., Catherine B., Dori B., Cathy C., Gwen C., Judy C., Kelly C., Martha C., Saddie C., Sara C., Susan C., Jennie D., Joni D., Aggie D., Joanna D., Ruth D., Elisabeth E., Anne E., Dee E., Lynne F., Nancy F., Carmen G., Elizabeth G., Pam G., Ann H., Barbara H., Beth H., Donna H., Mark H., Teresa H., Cara H., Barb H., Sharon H., Wendy J., Beth K., Eileen K., Jerry K., Jean L., Sue L., Mona L., Joni M., Kathy M., Nicki M., Jinx M., Cindy M., Sue M., Beth N., Kathy O., Elizabeth P., Patty P., Tammy P., Debbie R., Greta R., Linda S., Jane S., Karen S., Laurie S., Jody S., Don S., Andy S., Liz T., Joann U., Barbara V., Liz W., Lynn W., Sarah W., Betsy W., Karen W., Nancy W., Sallie Z., Michelle, Theresa

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