Pat Bean's blog

Aging My Way

          Behind every person is a history, or so Shakespeare said. That was a thought I wrote in my journal six years ago, and which I came across again this morning when I was searching for something to write about. Of course it got me wondering about my own history.

          My past, however, has to be seen through the years I’ve lived through, a time in history that has seen changes so fantastic that it just about blows my mind. When I began my life in 1939, neighborhood home phone lines were shared with neighbors and long-distance phone calls cost a mint.

          I know because after they left home in the 1970s and 80s, my children, who by the way were raised without seat belts, had permission to call home collect at any time. I knew they were finally grown up and independent when they called and paid the charges themselves. Meanwhile, I’m glad such long-distance phone fees went the way of the dinosaurs because my family is now wide-spread across the country, and I love getting phone calls from them.

Then there is the particular memory I have of a geometry teacher – I remember him well because he told the class on day one that he didn’t believe girls belonged in his class because they would never need such higher math. On another day, he declared humans could never reach the moon because it was simply too far away.

I recalled those words with glee when, 14 years later, a man walked on the moon, an event I watched around a black and white television with my five kids. It was only much later that I learned it was female computer experts who helped make that historic event possible.

And here I should note that Loretta Lynn’s We’ve Come a Long Way Baby and Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman Here Me Roar are part of my history, as is Gloria Steinem’s Ms Magazine.

I find it interesting where my thoughts have led me this morning. Although my personal history has to be multifaceted, as is the world’s, my first thoughts were of being a mother and my battle as a woman for equality.

I’m okay with that.  

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.