Girl Scouts singing grace

Subject: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Bettynh
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 04:00 PM

When I attended Girl Scout camp in the late 50's and early 60's in Massachusetts, meals were always preceded by a short sung grace. I know there were many, so we didn't repeat a whole lot. But for the life of me, I can't remember them. I did find one I remember here but the others in that list don't seem familiar. Do any other former scouts remember these songs?

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List of graces

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Melissa
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 04:37 PM

Quite a few of those on the list are familiar to me. There are several there that I wouldn't want my girls to sing if I had a troop and it seemed like there were some 'standards' missing.

I was (am!) pretty strict on what I think is appropriate for gs to sing and I don't think grace should be silly.

Now that the search is fixed, you should be able to find a LOT of gs songs/discussions here. A gs thread is how I landed here..

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Bettynh
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 04:46 PM

I don't see any threads about graces, Melissa. The thing is, I do remember that very few of them were in the standard songbooks. All were short, and none were silly.

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Melissa
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 05:10 PM

Now that you mention it, Betty, I don't remember any early threads that were strictly about graces. I must have run across a handful that were slightly off-topic for the thread at hand.

Around the 80's, a trend to sing sillier songs/graces picked up momentum. I didn't know anything about it because the camp I worked at was pretty strict about songs. No snot or puke. Nothing insultive (fat/funny looking..etc)
Then, I went to a different camp.

Then, I got completely out of gs until the council started a troop in my hometown..started a troop without having a Leader lined up. When the troop was going to have to end because of not having a leader, my sister volunteered me.
The only grace my girls knew was 'Addams Family'. With me as leader, they didn't get to sing it at meetings anymore..but we DID sing the real theme song (so they could see why I didn't think it was entirely appropriate as a grace) and they did sing it when we went to activities hosted by others.

What kind of stuff did you sing when you were in gs?
Did you play 'Rock, Rock'?

Are you trying to remember a batch of graces? All my regular songbooks were lost in a fire, but I have a copy of the personal books that each camp used as reference (I'm fortunate to have been allowed copies! those books are reverentially hoarded..but somehow the owners of each let me have a copy)

Did you sing:
Girl Scout Grace
Johnny Appleseed
Hark to the Chimes
Good Morning God
Back of the Bread

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: open mike
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 06:03 PM

yes-- Johnny Appleseed...

the Lord is good to me
and so I thank the Lord
for giving me the things i need
the sun the rain and the apple seed
the Lord is good to me

and yes...Back of the Bread

Back of the Bread is the flour
and back of the flour is the mill
and back of the mill is the sun
and the rain and the good Lord's will

there seem to be quite a few of us who have had fire losses...

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: open mike
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 06:09 PM

if you search for camp songs, you will find a "perma-thread" which indexes them. I see several grace songs in there...one "Chalet" which
rings a bell, but i can't quite remember...any one have a memory of that song?

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 06:35 PM

I don't remember a PermaThread on camp songs, but here (click) is the Camp songs crosslink group.

My sister was a Girl Scout camp counselor during college, and she was an adult leader for many years. I've always thought of her as the consummate Girl Scout, and I've had her drop by here occasionally to furnish lyrics to Girl Scout songs. Well, she had her kids sing grace at table every night. I think they kept doing it until the kids moved out of the house. Even today, I'll go out with her to a restaurant, and her husband and I will be half-afraid that she'll break into some grace song before we eat.

But I gotta admit, her table grace songs were kinda sweet; and they're one of the things I love about her - obnoxious though they may be.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Melissa
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 06:38 PM

I think "Chalet" must be the one that starts 'high up on a mountain we founded our chalet..' I don't know the song but vaguely remember someone singing it and wanting me to know it.

far too many fire losses, om. Heartbreakingly horrid things!

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Bettynh
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 07:25 PM

I do remember Johnny Appleseed. Wasn't that a Disney song?

And Hark to the Chimes:

Hark to the chimes!
Come bow your head!
We thank Thee, Lord,
For this good bread

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Bettynh
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 07:42 PM

Backof the Bread

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: mousethief
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 07:44 PM

My first wife taught me the Appleseed one, and called it "The Girl Scout Grace". We're in our late 40s for reference.

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Bettynh
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 07:52 PM

Johnny Appleseed

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Melissa
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 08:06 PM

The one I know as 'The Girl Scout Grace' is

In the beauty of this hour
bless, o lord, this we take
make our lives for thee a tool
help us live the girl scout rule


Joe-your sister is lucky to have such an easy way to keep you slightly nervous! I need to start trying to spook my brother into worrying that his sisters (and mother) might break into a singing grace in public..

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: open mike
Date: 13 Apr 10 - 08:36 PM

wow what a great lot of links are now connected to this thread..
here is the scout songbook index perma-thread
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=77412#1405480

it is great to have the search feature functioning again!!

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 07:41 AM

Betty, I remember a slightly different version of "Back of the bread" as sung by the Brownies of Greeley, Colo., c. 1968!

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Bettynh
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 10:05 AM

Melissa, I was a Girl Scout through high school. I was sent to the Roundup in Idaho in 1965. We travelled cross-country by train, sleeping in Pullmans and dining at picnic tables in cattle cars. The train got longer as we approached Idaho. The wait-in-line-for-a-meal song became "Wemoweh" and it was magnificent. But I don't remember "Rock, Rock"

Animaterra, if the words were different, please post them.

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Mooh
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 10:50 AM

I'm particularly partial to "For food in a world" (World Hunger Grace). I say it to myself if I eat alone, with others at our table and I wrote a fingerstyle guitar version roughly based on the harmony I remember. The usual melody was written by the Rev. R. J. Crocker.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Melissa
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 11:54 AM

Our 'Back of the Bread' was slower than the youtube ladies sang it. At camp, we sang it as a round.

'Rock Rock' is a sitting-down circle game. You sing and pass a rock around the circle trying not to get caught.

Rock, rock
how I wander
from one hand into the other
is it fair
is it fair
to leave poor (name) standing there.


What was Roundup, Betty?
I didn't start until the 70's and don't remember anything by that name. Was it fun? The train ride sounds great!

Does anybody know the song about trees that they sang at the first international gathering? I sort of think the song is called "Trees" but maybe not. (it's not 'beneath these tall green trees we stand..')

Do any of you have a copy of the songbook printed in the 20's?

What are the words to "For food in a world" Mooh?

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Mooh
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 01:20 PM

Melissa,

For food in a world where many walk in hunger;
For faith in a world where many walk in fear.
For friends in a world where many walk alone,
We give you humble thanks, O Lord.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Bettynh
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 01:49 PM

Melissa, I don't know or remember a song titled "Trees" but the other is a grace and belongs here:

Beneath these tall green trees we stand,
Asking blessings from Thy hand.
Thanks we give to thee above,
For Thy help and strength and love

Score one for the boyscouts.

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: Bettynh
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 02:18 PM

Roundup was a week-long encampment of senior scouts. Each council sent 8 girls. In the end there were almost 10,000 of us. Dress codes applied, so it was a sea of green. ;-) The train stopped at Yellowstone, and we clogged the park road with a few miles of yellow buses. We were an official military training exercise, so we got a look at field conditions: cold showers with no roof (we had to watch out for helicopters!), military escorts if we left the tent at night. I can't remember the toilets, but this was before portapotties, so probably they were pit toilets. There was a MASH unit, complete with OR. Remember, this was 1965. Their next stop was Vietnam. We made chotskis to trade, and decorated the bright yellow plastic cowboy hats we were issued with them. Every group put together a demonstration about their home, and visiting was a big part of it. There were ceremonies, of course, but I really can't remember those. I do remember the "little dustdevil" that whipped a couple tents 40 feet in the air (it didn't impress the Oklahoma girls at all). The last day was cut short by an awesome thunderstorm. In New England you can't see lightning setting fires 20 miles away an hour before the rain starts. And we sang. Trading songs and sharing the official Girl Scout songs was part of it, too.

Subject: RE: Girl Scouts singing grace
From: GUEST,Dckirk
Date: 17 Aug 10 - 10:08 PM

WOW, what a great "sing" down memory lane - thanks for the lyrics and memories.