Saturday, April 5, 2008

Happiness in a Box

Or several boxes, really.



Yup, Girl Scout cookies. Found at the local grocery store at the end of a no-good, very bad day. Brilliant timing. I was beginning to think I'd not have any at all, and that would have made me very sad.

You see, Girl Scout cookies have been a major part of my life for a long time. I was a Girl Scout: from Brownie to Cadette. I even earned the Silver Award (second highest honor) - except that I cannot officially claim it on any resume or the like. My Cadette troop disbanded before the troop leader could submit the paperwork.

I used to sell cookies routinely, and only very rarely did I allow my dad to take it into work with him. Most of my selling was done the good, old-fashioned way: knocking on neighbor's doors. I lucked out though - when I was growing up, I was the only non-Orthodox kid on the block. So I had the cookie monopoly!

Those four cookies are my favorites. And no, none of them are Thin Mints. I'm one of those weird people who dislike chocolate and mint in the same bite. Don't know why, I just don't.

The most intriguing thing about these cookies, besides the inflated cost from when I used to sell them, is their names.

The red box contains Peanut Butter Patties. The orange contains Peanut Butter Sandwiches. Purple? My favorite: Carmel DeLites. And the blue? Standard shortbread. The colors of the boxes haven't changed, but the names have.

Peanut Butter Patties were Tagalongs when I sold them. And Do-Si-Dos. And Samoas. And Trefoils. I asked the troop leader when I bought them why the names were different. She didn't know, but guessed that it might be a geographic thing.

All I know is that they taste damn good.

I could have bought more, but that would have been overindulgence. And I just can't break away from my classics. I never was hooked on any of the random extra items that rotated from year to year. I even remember when they tried selling crackers one year. Those didn't go down very well. Who wants healthy stuff? We want the sinfully good cookies!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go indulge in some good old-fashioned American tradition.

2 comments:

Lindsay said...

I read somewhere that there are two different suppliers of GS cookies, and that they use different names for some of the cookies. Back in CA we have the tagalongs, trefoils, samoas, etc but I have noticed in DC they use the other names you mentioned.

Ann said...

Aha! That makes sense! As long as they taste the same... I don't really care. I just think its funny. I mean, they reinvent themselves every year, so I wouldn't put it past them to change the names.