Alumnae Story
The Tricks of Fire Starting

By Jennifer Beaty-Elbert
Lawton, Okla.
Sooner Council

My favorite memories of Girl Scouting are the camping trips and the various exciting, interesting and silly things that happened. One camping trip it was so cold that the dishwashing soap froze and our matches got wet. Luckily we had already started our campfire before the weather turned bad. Ms. Trueblood, our troop leader, showed us how to save the hot coals by covering them with ash and dirt. In the morning we scraped off the cool ash and dirt and found that some of the coals from the previous fire were still hot. Ms. Trueblood took some wadded brown paper sack and some dry twigs and started that fire again without any matches. I'm still able to do that today, when my family goes camping. My boys and husband (who love to drench the firewood with charcoal lighter fluid) were always amazed that I could start a fire with one match and start it again the following morning without any matches at all.