PVP Village Writers

Author: Village Member Steve Jordan

Okay, I don't know how you all feel about this but for me February is my least favorite month. It's still officially winter with fairly short days, fairly cold weather, fog and a chance of rain. We are still working at paying off those Christmas bills and at the same time getting ready for April 15th. If we made any New Year's resolutions the initial conviction we had may be fading. The Super Bowl gets played on February 7th and that's the end of football for another year. It's the endurance part of the season for the Lakers and Clippers and "March Madness" seems far away. There aren't any big time holidays this month either.  Abe Lincoln and George Washington get combined for President's Day. There's Valentine's Day but I'm not sure that really counts. Other than that, it's Groundhog's Day, when we have a 50/50 chance of six more weeks of winter riding on whether a furry coated rodent named Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not. Whenever I think of Groundhog's Day, I flash back to the 1993 film by the same name where Bill Murray relives the same day again and again and again, sort of how our lives have been going since last Spring.  For practicing Christians, it is also the start of Lent-a sort of "spiritual spring cleaning" with forty days of prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial. Now if only we were in New Orleans, we could precede it with a bit of Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday, that last opportunity at excess. Gardeners may take some solace in paging through seed catalogs and browsing the local nurseries. But according to Pat Welch's Southern California Gardening Month to Month book "February is a month for waiting". 
 
So, for me the brightest, happiest, most uplifting thing that happens this month is, you guessed it, GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!  Oh yeah, delicious cookie treats with weird names.  Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs, Trefoils, Do-Si-Dos, Lemonades, Thanks-a-Lots, Savannah Smiles, Trios, Toffee-Tastics, Girl Scout S’mores and new for 2021 Toast-Yay! (French toast flavor).

My personal experience with Girl Scout cookies goes way back to my childhood in the Midwest. My mom was a Girl Scout leader and both my older sisters wore the uniform proudly.  Our basement became the drop off spot and temporary warehouse for a whole troop's worth of inventory. Girls would come to the house with their mothers to count out and load up their orders. Later they would return with the forms all filled out, each column correctly totaled and the cash exact to the penny. As my sisters aged out of the program, they were replaced by neighbor girls coming to the door.  

When my wife and I moved here to Valmonte we encountered a new (to us) source-scouts selling cookies outside local grocery stores. And while the cookies were as good as ever it did feel a bit strange buying from strangers and taking immediate delivery. Fortunately for us, our neighborhood is populated with Girl Scouts and they have stepped in to fill the void. In this age of instantaneous online marketing, it felt good when a familiar face showed up at the door in her uniform, rang the bell, took out her paper order form and pencil, described all our choices, checked the proper boxes, totaled it up and later returned with cookies in hand to collect the money.  

Alas, “in person cookie buying” won’t be happening this year in the “age of Covid-19.” So, the Girl Scouts have lived up to their motto “Be Prepared” and like many other enterprises, they have gone online. You probably will not have anyone come to your door or see tables set up outside your local grocery stores. Here is how it works. If you happen to know a girl scout, just contact her and she will take care of you.  Otherwise, log on to the website www.girlscoutcookies.org, enter your zip code, and they will direct you to the nearest local cookie booth. Or just place your order online and it will be delivered to your door. And in select areas you can even buy cookies through the delivery service Grub Hub.

And as we open up a fresh box to sample each flavor (Thin Mints are my favorite, Do-Si-Dos are Margi’s), spring feels a lot closer.