Make New Friends: A Song History

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A Girl Scouts of the USA meeting aid for Daisy troops presents "Make New Friends" as a four-part round and calls it a "special Girl Scout song."[1] The Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles Girl Scout Songs & Games Handbook lists it among its traditional Girl Scout songs and prints it as a round in a section headed "The Basic Eight: Songs All Girl Scouts Should Know."[2] Neither of these Girl Scout publications names a composer or gives a date for the song.[1][2]

Four girls with long hair leaning together over a drawing on a table

Théodule Ribot, Four Girls Studying a Drawing, watercolor and possibly ink, 1876. Girls gathered around a drawing, shown for the friendship of the round; it has no connection to the Girl Scouts or the song.

One Girl Scout guide to meeting ceremonies says that troops often close by gathering in a friendship circle to sing either "Taps" or "Make New Friends," sometimes passing a hand squeeze around the ring.[3] The Girl Scouts of Silver Sage describe the friendship circle as girls crossing right arms over left and clasping hands while a squeeze travels around the circle, and note that the song is often sung during it.[4] Two entries in the University of Southern California's digital folklore archive record it in use: one tells of a mother who learned it at Girl Scout camp in the 1960s from counselors and other scouts and describes it as a campfire chant, and a 2014 entry recalls an elementary-school troop singing it hand in hand at the end of meetings, a custom the leaders began.[5][6] Shelley Stevens arranges it as a round in Baker's Dozen #8: Rounds And Duets, a Fingers Of Steel book of thirteen easy rounds and duets for two or more dulcimers, all in DAD tuning.[7]

Our book that contains the song "Make New Friends"

Sources

  1. Girl Scouts of the USA: "Learn the Make New Friends Song".
  2. Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles: "Girl Scout Songs & Games Handbook".
  3. Girl Scouts: "Opening and Closing a Meeting or Activity".
  4. Girl Scouts of Silver Sage: "Traditions Short & Snappy".
  5. USC Digital Folklore Archives: "Make New Friends".
  6. USC Digital Folklore Archives: "Girl Scout Memories".
  7. Fingers Of Steel: "Shelley Stevens, Baker's Dozen #8: Rounds And Duets".
  8. Image: Théodule Ribot, Four Girls Studying a Drawing, watercolor and possibly ink, 1876. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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