SUSIE HOMEMAKER

I have to say, I'm a bit envious of young girls today, and all of the options they have spread out before them. So many, in fact, that it might be difficult to make up one's mind. How do you choose just one thing out of hundreds, maybe even thousands, to be your life's work? That wasn't an issue when I was thinking about college.

In my time, in my family, the pickin's were much, much slimmer. I started high school in the late 60's, and the only career-women I'd ever come into contact with were nurses, teachers, secretaries, librarians, waitresses and one dietitian. I wasn't crazy about any of those options. I wanted to do something more interesting! More glamorous! More creative! I couldn't draw or paint, so "artist" was out. What other options did I have?

Only four of my female relatives had ever even gone to college. Two wanted to be dietitians, so they majored in Home Economics. The other two majored in education. Actually, my sister started out in accounting, but my parents pestered her until she switched to education. Mom kept telling her how much easier it would be, with those short days and summers off, when she got married and started having babies in a couple of years. As it turned out, she remained single and childless for almost 20 years more, then married a very nice man with two half-grown sons. My other sister wasn't really interested in college, so she became a secretary. Somewhere along the way she morphed into being an ad-min, when it was decided that being called "secretary" was no longer P.C., and quickly moved up to Executive Assistant.

In those days you had to be 16 to get a real job - which was anything other than babysitting or lawn-mowing. So, on my sixteenth birthday I walked to our neighborhood shopping center, and started going door to door, filling out applications. The fabric store offered me a job on the spot. I wasn't much of a seamstress, but I knew enough. In the 60's, every eighth grade girl in Dallas took a mandatory Home Ec. class--one semester of cooking, and one of sewing. Guys took shop, and learned to do manly things. I was never crazy about sewing per se, but I loved the creative aspects of it, choosing styles, fabrics, colors, accessories, etc. Finally having a closetful of cool clothes was just icing on the cake.

At some point I discovered that you could get a degree in Clothing, Textiles and Fashion Merchandising, and with this degree, I could end up being a buyer for a store like Neiman Marcus. A lot of girls said screw it when they found out it was a B.S. degree, which meant they'd have to take just as many hours of biology and chemistry as any other science major, but I didn't care. Heck, I used to tutor a kid in chemistry. All that really mattered was, this degree was exciting! This was creative! This was something I could actually wrap my head around! This was how I ended up being branded with the lifelong stigma of having been a Home Ec. major - one who only went to college to get her M.R.S. degree. How was I to know that in a few short years, with the women's lib movement in full swing, this major would fall so far out of favor that the whole dang department would have to be disbanded, redistributed, and renamed?

P.S. Many thanks to blogs.931wolfcountry.com for the above image.