When I was a young girl, I was in the Girl Scouts. Every summer, we had what they called “Day Camp” where all the scouts and their troop leaders spent the week camping. Actually, we were picked up each evening to go home and the last day was the only over-nighter. We had fun playing games, doing crafts, singing songs around the campfire and cooking our favorite snacks like S’mores.

One of the songs we sang was ‘The Bear Went Over The Mountain.’ Up until today, I never really knew the correct lyrics and I’m surprised at how different I learned it as a kid in the Girl Scouts. I guess the Girl Scouts changed it to make it a Girl Scout song. The problem is, I could never remember exactly how we sang it back then so I made up my own version. It goes like this:

The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.

He saw a bunch of Girl Scouts, he saw a bunch of Girl Scouts, he saw a bunch of Girl Scouts, and what do you think he did?

He ate up all the Girl Scouts, he ate up all the Girl Scouts, he ate up all the Girl Scouts, and what do you think he did?

He puked up all the Girl Scouts, he puked up all the Girl Scouts, he puked up all the Girl Scouts, and what do you think he did?

I stopped at this point, as I could never think of what could possibly come next. Anyway, the whole point of this story is that I was singing my version of this song (and other songs too) to my 19-month-old granddaughter last night while trying to rock her back to sleep. She was drifting off slowly, occasionally opening her eyes. Her nose was a little stuffy and she was uncomfortable but she was obviously trying to fall back asleep. When I got to the last verse ‘He puked up all the Girl Scouts,’ Doodle Bug opened her eyes and very loudly responded, “Gross!” I didn’t realize she was even listening to me. It was a moment I won’t soon forget!