Saturday, June 27, 2015

The Times Are Changing Again

When I was in college in the mid sixties I started out with curfews and bed checks.  We were in lock down mode resembling a women's prison most of the time.  We had to be wearing stockings and a skirt or dress in order to stand in the cafeteria line for the meals our parents paid for. The men's dorms were open 24/7.  But they had to worry about Viet Nam.

My senior year, I could have worn nothing at all and gotten my meal.  No questions.  There were also no curfews or bed checks.  The school and dorm administrators just didn't seem to care where we were or what we were doing. We had the Pill.  Drug use was everywhere (which is why we now have so many commercials for Hepatitis drugs).

I went from living the life of a nun in a convent to...... what would you call it?

In the early years of marriage (happened just after I finished school), we witnessed drug users in the streets (we hoped they were just sleeping and not dead) on the sidewalks in Atlanta where we lived and where our children were born (under the Confederate Flag).  Men visited the moon, Civil Rights, Medicare etc.  The Times They Were A Changing.

Who even thought that at 68.5 I would be witness to another, mind blowing, set of changes.... A Black man as President--for two terms. The Affordable Care Act being given the Supreme Court stamp of approval.  Everyone gets to see the doctor and be well ( I can tell you I am forever grateful for Medicare coverage and Social Security)). Marriage is a right for every American (wow).  The Confederate Flag is now being seen for what it really is--- the on going Civil War---which in some states never ended.  Now Walmart says it's over.

I'm left hopeful that someday a woman will be President.  In my lifetime. Right now we can celebrate a woman climbing to take down the flag in South Carolina.  And being arrested.  Right on!

1 comment:

MariMo said...

Right on - enjoying every minute of these changing times!