#anyway if you were at a resort in the Poconos in the mid-2010s and you saw a group of ten-year-olds

[smol-blue-bird]

anyway, here's another fun Girl Scout memory nobody asked for: one time my mom built the Challenger Disaster out of waffles and oranges in a weird, failed attempt to earn me a badge

Basically, my girl scout troop (inexplicably) went on this trip to a fancy resort in the Poconos (I have absolutely no idea how we afforded this in hindsight), and this place had an activity called "Breakfast Wars" where you had to make a breakfast to fit a specific theme, and at the end, all the breakfasts would be judged and the winner would get a prize. I don't know why, but we were told that the winners would also get a patch for their vests at the end (I have no idea if this was a real thing Girl Scouts did or if we were just allowed to stitch random patches onto our vests--we never really followed the rules anyway). The theme of the weekend was "80s," so everyone was making big chunky cell phones, and scenes from movies, and girls with wild hair and neon makeup and shoulder pads. But our moms were like "we can't do that, that's too stereotypical. We have to pick a theme nobody else will do."

So they picked the CHALLENGER DISASTER.

Us kids, obviously, barely knew what the Challenger Disaster was. So we just kind of sat there and quietly helped while our mothers assembled an assortment of waffles, pancakes, and fruit into an exploding space shuttle like it was no big deal. They got, like, really into it. I remember them literally peeling a tangerine and using the peel for the fire, which, in hindsight, is absolutely nuts. I have no idea why any of these grown adults thought this was a good idea.

Regardless, the end product came out looking very cool (I wish I could find a picture, it was insane), although it was probably also extremely tasteless, BECAUSE IT WAS THE FUCKING CHALLENGER DISASTER MADE OUT OF WAFFLES. And we were so proud of it, too, because we didn't know what it was! We were like, ten, we were not alive for the Challenger Disaster!

Anyway, eventually the competition ended and the judges came around, and the kids were supposed to be the ones doing the talking, so the judge was like "what's your breakfast about?" and my poor friend just said "THE CHALLENGER SPACE SHUTTLE." And I wish I could have saved the look on that judge's face, because it was incredible. Imagine being that employee. Imagine hosting a fun little cooking competition at your cute bougie family resort and making it 80s themed, and then walking around to look at the entries and having a group of elementary schoolers proudly present their waffle recreation of a tragedy that killed 7 people. Why did our mothers put us up to this? Why did they not tell us what we were making?? Were they so desperate to create a truly innovative 80s breakfast that thought the Challenger was a good subject for this competition? Why did they think waffle art was a good medium for depicting this???? It has been over ten years and I'm still baffled.

Needless to say, we lost the competition, and we didn't get the patch. But—and here's the best part!—our moms were surprised by this! They were like "we obviously had the best and most innovative design," and it's like, yeah, maybe, but obviously they're going to give the prize to the kids with the giant waffle cell phone and not the kids with the fucking waffle CHALLENGER DISASTER???? My mom was like "that was rigged, we should have won," which, ?????????? WHAT MADE YOU THINK ANYTHING ABOUT THE WAFFLE CHALLENGER DISASTER WAS APPROPRIATE