I celebrate the women in my life

March is Women's History Month. I love to celebrate women, and I will write this month about the women in my life, in my family who are and were important to who I am today. 

I remember an ad that said, "You've come a long way, Baby." 

We have come a very long way, but still are struggling to get the respect we deserve in the workplace. 

Sometimes it is because of the ignorance of the men in the offices and workplaces. Sometimes it is because a certain type of male thinks his advances, no matter how outrageous, should be regarded as compliments to a woman. Back in the seventies when women were pushing for equal rights for women, they were shamed and belittled. A woman who spoke up in a room full of men and expressed her ideas would often be laughed at or ignored. If you watched Mad Men on TV, you saw what life was like for working women in the sixties. How much has it changed? I don't know, but I know I have changed.

In my home, older brothers were allowed to embarrass or humiliate their little sisters even when we were very young. My father was the boss, the authority, the one you must deal with if you dared speak up. So, my little sister and I learned to keep quiet. 

My sister, June 

My older sister, June, who had the same father and felt his bias for his sons over her, did not let it stop her. Maybe because she was the oldest and her brothers looked up to her, she was allowed to have a voice. As she grew up and became her own person, I saw my father's respect for June grow. He admired her and listened to her.

When her friends from high school were looking for a good man to marry, to have children with, make a home with, June wanted more for herself. Her role models were my mother and my aunts who all were housewives who had little control over their lives because their husbands brought in the funds to feed the family. June wanted to be independent and able to make it on her own.

She attended college on a scholarship. She planed to become a teacher. 

But she had to leave school after two years and did not get her degree because she was needed at home. Our father had bought a farm. Until harvest time, the farm made no money.  He had to find a way to build a house that was not drafty, one that could be properly heated. June went to work at Georgia Stages, a bus station in Albany, Georgia. She used her salary to help with family expenses. She met other young women who were working and through one of them, she learned of the possibility of work at the local military base, Turner Field. The pay was much better. She applied and was hired.

Gay and I admired our tall big sister with her long black hair and pretty dresses. She put on her nylon hose and her high heel shoes, and we thought she was prettier than the movie stars in the magazines she brought home. Years later, my friend Joyce who lived in Acree, the settlement nearest to our farm, said she and others were in awe of June because she was always dressed up and looked beautiful. She was, indeed, different from other adult females in our area.

                                                                                                                                                          

June dated men she met at the base. One of them was Allen. She fell for him in a big way. He was from up north and of course, he didn't talk like my family with their southern drawl. My brothers made fun of Allen's speech and pronunciation of words that were so different from their own. I think the young man was interested in the farm and asked questions which my brothers thought were ridiculous. Years after Allen was no longer around, I heard him imitated with much laughter by my brothers and I imagine June was hurt because she loved him. 

Eventually, Allen was transferred, and he and June broke up.  As the second world war ended she was transferred to an airbase in Newport News, Virginia. I believe it was Langley Air Force Base. I'm sure my mother missed her terribly. She helped Mother with the children, Gay and me. We adored her and wanted to be with her or around her all the time. At night she read poems and stories to us and taught us to say our prayers. I remember the sweetness of her voice which made me feel safe and made it easier to sleep. The poem I remember best:

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night sailed off in a wooden shoe...

She had many talents, but the one I remember best is her ability to draw. The women she drew with pencil only, looked like the models in the newspaper. Looking back, I believe she could have been a fashion designer or someone who worked in that industry. With only a pencil, she created lovely women as pretty as the ones in the Sears and Roebuck catalog, decked out in fashionable gowns, hats, and shoes. She drew paper dolls for me to play with at school. I was extremely popular for a while when the other girls saw them. 

In high school, June's favorite teacher was the art teacher, Mrs. Van Cise. Perhaps that teacher saw June's talent and wanted to help her advance. She as part of the local Woman's Club gave June the scholarship. They did not ask her to pay it back but to pay it forward, to help another girl go to college. June did that.

As I reflect on my life, June was the one who had the most effect on me when I was a child. She was fifteen years older and it seems to me she was always grown up. Times were hard for our family during WWII. My brother, Ray, joined the US Navy. June helped keep the bunch of us afloat with her generosity, love, and compassion for Mother. My older sister hated that my mother had to work so hard.  Not only did Mother cook three meals every day, but she also did laundry by hand for all of us except when she could hire someone to help her. With money so tight, mother did not buy anything for herself. My sister, June, was Santa Claus because she had a job and could put toys on layaway until Christmas Eve.

June's story goes on and her influence in my life goes on, too. She met a young lieutenant in the Air Force while in Virginia. He fell madly in love with her and would not give up until she agreed to marry him. But that part of her story is for another time. 

I celebrate my sister this month because she was the most important influence on me when I was growing up, and she lives still in her two daughters. 

Who was the woman who was most influential in your life? Was it your mother, a sister, an aunt, a teacher, or someone who was not related to you at all?

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