“Just do right.”

~ Dr. Maya Angelou

The cookies are out. Everywhere. This time of year Thin Mints, Do-See-Dos, Trefoils and S’mores are out on the prowl, lined up in boxes on tables in front of stores — it’s the Girl Scouts cookie-thon. Like the old potato chip commercial says, you can’t just eat one.

Yes, back when those dinosaurs were still roaming the earth, I was a Girl Scout. I had to don a starchy uniform, merit-badge sash and official cap along with knee socks to haul boxes of cookies along with a long paper form. Back in those prehistoric times, no one ordered online. You could take advance orders, and hope to track your customers down at delivery/payment time. This meant working the school halls, begging my dad to hawk cookies at work, hoping my mother would take some to TOPS meetings, and prevailing on her to load up our green Dodge station wagon with boxes after school and weekends. We (she) would have to drive around the countryside on miles of back roads so I could make sales pitches at brick ranch houses, farm houses, and any neighbors we could hit on. Back then, if you didn’t live in a town, you had to hustle three times as hard to find a customer base.

Over the years, those ubiquitous cookie boxes have gotten smaller and much lighter. The ingredient list has changed, but girls still benefit from Scouting. I did. I learned how to build a fire, cook over it, and put one out properly in the woods. I learned how to dig latrines, tie ropes, use a knife, apply a tourniquet, survive in the wild, canoe, tell ghost stories over a crackling fire, use a mess kit, identify plants and critters, and get along with others.

I haven’t forgotten our fearless leaders — other girls’ moms who must have been awfully brave to go camping with a rowdy bunch and serve as therapist, mom, friend, nurse, and disciplinarian.

Reckon I’ll be looking for a box of Thin Mints this cookie season and remembering. Times change, sales methods and cookies change, but the memories, those don’t!

Saluda Welcome Table at Saluda Methodist Church is every Tuesday from 5:30-6:45 p.m.

There’s still time to order an engraved brick/paver for Pace Park in the alley by M.A. Pace Store. Drop off applications and payment to City Hall or mail to City of Saluda, 6 Main Street, Saluda, NC 28773. Proceeds will go toward building public restrooms. For information, contact Catherine Ross at 828-749-3534 or carnc@charter.net.

Learn more about Saluda Community Land Trust (SCLT) by visiting saludaclt.org or calling 828-749-1560. To sign up for a plot/rows at Robinson Community Garden on Henderson Street, meet at Feb. 7, 6 p.m. at the SCLT office upstairs in the Saluda Presbyterian Church. The growing season is March 1 – Nov. 30. For information on the community garden, call 828-749-9172 or email dlprudhomme@gmail.com.

Calling all artists: the Saluda Business Association invites you to enter the 15th annual juried Saluda Arts Festival on May 19, 2018, the deadline for entry is mid-March. Visit saluda.com to link to the arts festival page.

Happy February Birthday to: Wylie Rauschenbach, Wesley Pace, Biddie Dawson, Ginny Jones, Jenna Igoe, Suzanne Igoe, Pam Thompson, Catherine Raymond, Eva McCray, Ellen Rogers, Margaret Miller, Paul London, Ward Sandahl, Bill Klippel, Pat Bares, Dwight Smith, Ingrid Sandahl, Fred Baisden, Duane Bateman, Ragan Thompson, and Laura Williams.

Thank you for reading this column dear readers; as ever, the goal is to make you feel like you’re enjoying small town life in a friendly mountain town called Saluda. Feel free to contact me at bbardos@gmail.com, 828-749-1153, or visit bonniebardosart.com.