From Diana Vance

Monroe

To the Editor,

When the Women’s Movement began, I was twenty-two years old. My mother had been a product of the old ways. She ran a boarding house for fifteen years. It was that long because it was during the Great Depression and she was trapped. She never spoke about the Women’s Movement. She may have thought it was for other women. She and my Dad came from Denmark so all her family was still there. I missed not having relatives.

From that background I wanted more in my life to use whatever talents the Good Lord gave me. I went to college so I could open my eyes to a different world. And I loved it. I met my husband, Larry there. There was a lot of family around much of the time and I loved that too. My husband’s grandmother was a delicate woman in white gloves who lived on a farm. His mother was a woman with her own ideas who wore slacks in the 1930s-way before pant suits. She said onetime, “They can’t kill you for what you’re thinking.”

When it was Christmas time each of us were invited by an aunt to their farm near Indianford to cut down our Christmas tree always in zero weather. Afterwards we were treated to cookies and homemade bread with a cup of hot tea. We were always sent home with one of her delicious jams.

That Christmas we decorated our tree with Christmas cards from friends and family. Larry’s dad bought for us a string of lights and it was lovely. Christmas Eve came and we were to go to Larry’s mother’s house for a party. I could barely see what was on her tree until I went inside. The tree was a large pine which smelled so fresh. It stood like nature itself. Then I stopped in my tracks. I looked and thought, how could I miss it? Larry’s mother had a bra hanging in plain sight on their tree. I never smiled so wide or thought about the wonderful message she had hanging there. It was as dominant a “Yes” for the Women’s Movement on a Christmas tree so many years ago.

She was the kindest and most thoughtful woman I have ever known. And she gently and picturesquely gave her opinion that Christmas fifty-nine years ago.