MEMORIES COME FLOODING BACK

This seems to be a week where the Way-Back Machine is operating at full tilt. Everything I see, read, or touch brings back memories of the past. Lots of media coverage of women's rights and the ongoing battle regarding abortion rights. International Book Day was yesterday and I am now reading The Help and revisiting the deep south in the 1960s. Wow, We have come a long way since then.

1964: traveled through the south on our way to Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale. Took pictures of billboards saying, "Impeach Earl Warren" and the many KKK signs sticking out like dirty Band-aids on tree trunks. Water fountains, restaurants, washrooms, hotels with signs saying "Whites Only" or "No Coloreds." Heady stuff for us Northerners who thought we were above all that. We weren't. It was just a lot more subtle. Like the white elevator operator in Macy's in 1962 that I saw wave a well-dressed black man to the service elevator. And the well-dressed man complied silently. Meantime, I, a mere teenager, made a scene. Oh, how self-righteous I was back then. (I guess I still am.)

Even my high school, a private, Catholic girl's school suffered a lot of negative publicity by enrolling a couple of sisters who were black. That was in 1960. I had to field questions from "well-meaning" friends and relatives who were curious as to what it was like "going to school with coloreds." Were they allowed to use the same lavatories? Did they eat with you in the same cafeteria? I gave very snotty answers and grew more and more angry with each question. What was the matter with these so-called adults? Which might explain why my generation went on to be such a bunch of radicals. About that time, a black family moved onto our lily-white North Buffalo street. A neighbor actually started a petition to tell them to buzz off, they weren't welcome. I was the one to answer the door when she came around with her petition and I let her have it in no uncertain terms. Thankfully, my family was on the same page as I was regarding the racial issue, so I felt comfortable in expressing my outrage about the petition. The family still lives on the street and they have been joined by a couple of other black families. And the neighborhood is just as desirable as it always was.

Then, there's the situation in Wisconsin that is actually painful for me to watch. As a proud union supporter, it appalls me that unions are being destroyed by a political party with its own agenda, not caring what people think. If it were not for unions, children would still be working in mines and factories; workers would have no benefits; wages would remain low; the forty hour work week would still be a dream; and unjust firings would be the norm. Enlightened countries give a place at the table for the unions and the results are positive for everyone involved. In the US, class warfare has broken out.

Of course, this brings back memories of my own union involvement and the hard work it took to bring the female telephone operators forward from the days where they were fed the myth that they were working for "pin money."

Then there's the abortion issue. And that brings back some painful memories. I was never faced with "the decision" but I knew people who were. And that was before Roe V. Wade which gave women the right to choose a legal abortion. The women I knew had to come up with a lot of money to fly to Puerto Rico or pay a so-called "back alley abortionist" if they had an unwanted pregnancy. Some took the matter into their own hands and almost died. The shot-gun wedding was another alternative whether the couple was ready for it or not. While I find abortion to be a terrible solution to an unwanted pregnancy, it should still be an option. I would prefer to advocate that every female be offered free information and birth control options rather than abortions. If proper birth control is used (there's even a simple five year sub-dermal option available,) the need for abortion would be hardly necessary. Oh, and I remember the lies young women had to tell their doctors to get a prescription for birth control pills. Unmarried women were often not offered the option of good, safe birth control.

So, I will now curl up on my new chaise longue and get back into reading The Help. (Ain't retirement grand?) I would suggest that everyone read this book. It is in the same category as the seminal To Kill a Mockingbird.