What we can learn from our Silent Generation parents...

[frogmarch]

3. I’m 68 and grew up with the notion that

girls were not good at math – at least not as good at math as boys were. I was pretty good at math, but everyone knew that Mother Nature pulled tricks sometimes.

After meals shared with family friends from church, Mom, a college graduate who'd once been a world traveler who loved adventure, cheerfully retired to the kitchen with the other women to wash dishes while the “menfolk” (except for my dad, who always helped the women clean up) discussed politics and other important topics that women’s brains couldn’t grasp - or so it was widely believed. Mom and Dad didn't go to parties. Mom belonged to church clubs and flower clubs, but Dad was a homebody who liked to read Winston Churchill and Russian novels and listen to his classical music records.

Mom was concerned I’d never find a husband, because men didn’t like women who were outspoken, opinionated and came across as being as bright as they were. She taught me to be pretty and sweet and to mind my manners. Dad died when I was quite young, but before he did he told me to never be afraid to think, and to not have getting married as my main goal in life.

I could continue, but that’s enough. I’m starting to have flashbacks from the horrid 50s.