Back in the Day
My mom was a little different from my friends’ moms. She did the things most moms did. She was a Brownie leader and she saw that I got to my piano lessons, dance classes etc., or she made sure that I knew how to get myself there. But she was BUSY.
I’m told that when she was in labor with me, she couldn’t deliver until she finished planning her meeting of the local chapter of Planned Parenthood. When I was five years old, she was the president of the League of Women Voters, which, in our family, was referred to as the “Liggamon Voters.” I was recruited to hand out election information at the Montclair, NJ to NYC commuter train station. I was trained to emphasize that it was NON-partisan information. I had that job throughout grade school.
When I was in junior high school, she was appointed to the Board of Education, and, by the time I was in high school, she was the president. Oh my, did that lead to some embarrassing situations for me. I was normally a pretty straight arrow, but occasionally I spoke my mind when I might have been wiser to keep quiet. I usually got away with it.
I remember one particularly uncomfortable day when the superintendent of schools walked into my English class, spoke briefly to the teacher, and then stopped by my desk to let me know that my mother had been re-elected president. I could have crawled through the floor.
My mom remained busy for the rest of her life. I believe that, if she had been born a generation later, she would have been the CEO of some corporation. As it was, she worked as hard as one and never earned a penny.
