Looking Back to 1964: Camp Fire Girls

It was 1964, when Teresa and I became members of the Camp Fire Girls, a group that provided built-in friendships that cemented the fun of the day. Many of us had started out as Blue Birds, a younger social group that was pitted against a rival group known as the Brownies.  

As the Brownies got older, they graduated into Girl Scouts, the staunch rivals of the Camp Fire Girls. It was kind of like that warfare between UCLA and USC, but on a more modest scale.

The kids at Carpenter would chant that the Blue Birds ate the Brownies, as I recall, but the only brownies I remember eating were the ones I coerced from my neighbors down the street. My mom didn't allow any sweets in the house except graham crackers and ginger snaps...bleah!

I remember all the names of my pals to this day, including our leader, Mrs. MacKay, and her daughter Beth.  What an arsenal of antics and characters! 

Mrs. Mackay did her best to instill a bit of decorum into her lively bunch of Camp Fire Girls. As Teresa and I were dyed-in-the-wool tomboys, trying to get us to appreciate some of the finer, more feminine things in life was a bit of a challenge for our leader.

I remember going to Descanso Gardens in La Canada when we were about 11 to learn about Japanese culture. Sitting in an outside café, I stared at a triangular-shaped noodle on the bottom of my soup bowl and wondered what it was. My lost Ouija board oracle? Why couldn’t we simply have Campbell’s chicken noodle or tomato soup instead?

Mrs. MacKay also forced us to wear kimonos and learn some Japanese dance routine. Now, for someone who preferred kickball to anything else, getting sandwiched into a kimono was akin to being in a straitjacket.

I’m sure I stumbled many times getting into and out of that outfit. I probably looked like some up-and-coming drag queen who had gotten kicked out of an audition for the Queen Mary, a popular transvestite club on Ventura Boulevard back in the day.

Our Studio City troop did take a number of more agreeable outings, including a trip to NBC, where we learned about the film industry, movie stars and special effects. Now, that’s entertainment!

I’ve always wondered what happened to my Camp Fire mates. I did manage to track one of them down, Dana Lindberg, who is now Dana Davidson and operates a successful clothing line in Northern California. As for the others, did they become doctors, lawyers or Indian chiefs?

Only the shadow knows….