In my school days in my part of small-town and rural America, gender roles were set in concrete. Girls took Home Economics* (cooking in the fall, sewing in the spring) and boys took Vocational Agriculture (Vo Ag for short), even boys like me who had absolutely no interest in farming or agriculture. In our school district the "choose an elective" list was rather short. I took vocational agriculture for one year only, 9th grade, my first year of high school. I learned a lot, actually, and was a member of several teams at competitive interscholastic meets. Land judging, dairy cattle judging, beef cattle judging, hog judging, poultry judging, grading of eggs, you name it, I did it. You don't want to know how to determine whether a hen is a good layer of eggs; the answer has nothing to do with looking in the nest. I can still identify various breeds of cattle and hogs and chickens. My project for the year -- we all had to have one -- was raising a Hampshire pig whom (or which) I dubbed Lady Henrietta. At the end of the year my dad had her slaughtered and we enjoyed (if that is the right word) ham and bacon and pork for some time afterward.
*nowadays it's called Consumer Science.
After my 9th-grade year my electives included Typing, Shorthand, Concert Band, Marching Band, and Chorus. Although I wanted to take Drivers Education (my parents did not own a car), I could not because the only period Drivers Ed was taught conflicted with Band. As a result, I didn't learn how to drive a car until I was almost 22 years old; it happened after Ellie and I became engaged. I thought it would look rather strange for the bride to drive the car away from the church. Necessity is the mother of both invention and getting your rear in gear (to continue the automotive metaphor) when the occasion calls for it.
Boys never took Home Ec and girls never took Vo Ag. But boys took Typing if they wished even though most of the students were girls who aspired to enter the working world as secretaries. No boy in my school had ever signed up for Shorthand until I came along. I figured it would help me take notes in college in the days before cassette tape recorders, and I was right. What I took, in case you were wondering, was Gregg Diamond Jubilee Shorthand With Brief Forms. I can't remember if that was the actual name of the class, but it's how I remember it. I was valedictorian of the class of 1958, and the following year, when Tommy C. became the second boy in the history of the school to take Shorthand, he became valedictorian of the class of 1959. Whether there is a cause and effect there, I cannot say.
The shorthand stood me in good stead through the years, and most people seemed surprised that I knew how to do it. One of my supervisors at IBM, Jim P., wasn't surprised, though, as he had formerly been one of three male executive secretaries to Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder and CEO of IBM. From what I understand, when an IBM executive traveled in the earlier decades of the twentieth century, it was a no-no for a woman secretary to travel with him. Hence, chaps like Jim P. were in demand.
In case you didn't notice, I'm just rambling with this post and going nowhere in particular.
Speaking of band, here's a photo of my youngest grandson, now a senior in high school, playing his trumpet with some of the members of his school's band. He looks very intense, and all grown up.
Finally, here's Mrs. RWP's latest creation, a crocheted baby blanket (it's the blanket that's crocheted, not the baby) for a young couple at our church. The color (British, colour) is not true because the photo was taken late in the afternoon in a room on the east side of our house. Although it appears to be almost lavender, it is in reality a beautiful shade of pink.
And now, for the big reveal, here it is unfolded:
Tomorrow would have been my parents' wedding anniversary, and the day after that is the day my wife's mother died in 1986 and our second grandchild was born in 1996.
I think I have run out of things to tell you.
For your reading pleasure, this post has contained nothing at all about either Aretha Franklin or Senator John McCain, which is all that has been on television this week in the good old U S of A.
See you next time.
I was entertained by your post. It is strange to look back to when we were in school. The gender stereotypes were strictly reinforced and enforced. The last semester of our senior year was when calcukus was available. I signed up. Then I was told that because I was a girl I would have no need for it. I was not allowed to take that class so a boy could take it instead. Of course all the young men who wished to take calculus were already signed up for the class. My seat sat empty that semester.
ReplyDeleteMrs. RWP made a beautiful blanket. How lucky that new baby is.
Emma, if you were entertained then my mission was accomplished. It’s almost criminal that you were not permitted to take calculus. Thank goodness, times have changed.
DeleteI had a couple of good teachers. Now it seems they all have to have degree but never in STEM subjects. Here we have comprehensive education which is an oxymoron if ever there was.
ReplyDeleteAdrian, I had a couple of really excellent teachers, Mr. D.P. Morris in English and Literature for one, and Mrs. Janet Brockett in mathematics for another. Oddly enough, most of our History and Science teachers in those days were football and basketball coaches doing double duty.
DeleteYour electives are/were very different to ours.
ReplyDeleteHome Economics, we had. The boys took it to enjoy cooking, but avoided the sewing classes. They had metal work and wood work, access to which was denied to the girls.
And none of us had Band as an option.
In the schools of the nearest big city, electives included things like astronomy and foreign languages and even orchestra. I was green with envy.
DeleteInteresting post. In New Zealand we were a long way behind you with choice and gender equality 50 years ago. Sewing and cooking were the only girl's choices. Metalwork and woodwork for the boys only. It would have been a brave boy or girl (or parent) that suggested otherwise.
ReplyDeleteCommercial 'C' classes taught shorthand and typing to girls. Technical 'T' classes taught metalwork etc, and early engineering type of skills. To boys. If you tested higher on the IQ tests (see that sad implication?), you were encouraged to go in a 'P' class - Professional. And everything was streamed 1, 2 & 3.
So in your 8th year of schooling, called 'Form Three' (about 13 years old) which was our first year of High School, there were about three classes of each. 3C1, 3C2, and 3C3; 3T1, 3T2, and 3T3; 3P1, 3P2, and 3P3. I was in 3P1, (then 4P1, 5P1 etc. but so wished I could learn typing and woodwork too! Not possible then.
(PS I wish you weren't worried about 'rambling'. I think rambles often make the best posts!)
Kate, what’s sad is being locked into one’s life path at such an early age. I have heard that in Japan the suicide rate among youngsters who don’t pass muster is higher than you might think, and rising. Hereabouts, choosing a “college preparatory” path in high school means concentratiing on traditional “academic” subjects. Choosing non-college prep usually leads to “tech schools” where many career paths are possible, including such fields as cosmetology, electronics, automobile repair, and emergency medical technician.
ReplyDeleteOnly my prep school was co-ed. I went to a male-only Grammar School. There were no choices at all which might have involved a gender difference.
ReplyDeleteOddly, after eschewing accountancy, I went into a legal department where all senior men who attended meetings had to learn shorthand. So I, unlike almosr everyone else who did Pitmans, did Gregg. However I was not particularly enthusiastic or good and a few years later the requirement was dropped. I wished for many years that I had become proficient. It would have helped me through many a public inquiry when trying to cross examine someone and make notes at the same time would have been facilitated considerably.
Graham, my aunt knew the Pitman method and demonstrated it for me one time. Gregg was much more flowing; with Pitman the thickness of a line and whether a stroke was placed above or below the baseline me meant something - it seemed much more difficult to me than Gregg.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit I choked up when I read the first words of your blog: 'An old man stares back at me from my bathroom mirror, a man I do not recognize although he does seem strangely familiar.' This is a fine statement, and a statement that would be universally understood. Kudos. Well done. And you ended your blog with this: 'For your reading pleasure, this post has contained nothing at all about either Aretha Franklin or Senator John McCain, which is all that has been on television this week in the good old U S of A.' A great way to end your blog. Kudos again.
ReplyDeleteIf I may, I did what you didn't do. I wrote a tribute to the 'Queen of Soul' in a recent blog. I couldn't help myself. That I'm 10 years your junior may have been a factor. Here's the tribute: https://elizabethriver.org/thank-you-aretha-franklin.
All the best, my friend. Keep up the good work.
David Gibson, I don’t remember seeing a comment from you before, so welcome to the blog! All I know for sure, really, is that you read the post’s first sentence and last sentence. You might be a robot. But as Humphrey Bogart once said to Claude Rains at the end of some movie or other, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
DeleteAfter all these years, you still refuse to come clean about the typing classes. You and I both know that you signed up for typing simply to ogle the girls. All this stuff about needing shorthand for college - it's just a subterfuge.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Just joking!
Yorkshire Pudding, you read my mind, after a fashion. I almost included that very thought about the boys who took the class when I was composing the post!
ReplyDelete