MAE JULIAN

Time is such a thief. Songs have been written about it, but when it comes to you, full-face, you are shocked. I got a notice that my 50th reunion is coming up. 50th!!!!?? How could 50 years have passed since I graduated, with my whole life ahead of me? I have decided to go, and then decided not to go. What to do? Lord knows, none of us will recognize each other if we have not kept track over the years. Guess if I go, I can write a column about it and let you know how it turns out. Sometimes I think about how things would have turned out, had not one small thing or another been different. It could have changed my whole life. My boyfriend, who was the love of my life at the time, went away to college, and for the life of me, I don’t remember how we parted ways. He asked me to marry him the summer before I entered nursing school, but since girls weren’t allowed to go to Lutheran Nursing School, and be married, I told him I couldn’t marry him. It wasn’t but about 5 months later that I heard he was getting married. Well, there you go. He died a couple of years ago, so I guess that kept me from widowhood! I have a grandson who is 19, now. I got married when I was 19. I’m glad that kids are waiting longer to get married now, but the problem is, they never leave home! Since we no longer have the draft, boys are probably reluctant to go into the service now, seeing as how we are involved in two wars. I think the draft was a good idea because it gave boys direction when they got out of school. Seems that the choices for boys were to get married, go into the service, or get a job and leave home. For girls the choices were fewer. If we could have been drafted, it would have been a good thing, in my opinion…as long as we weren’t involved in a war. The guys that went into the service got all that travel, fun, learned discipline, and then when they got out, they got their education paid for. I have two brothers-in-law who went into the Air Force and they had the best time of their lives. I think about it sometimes and think how neat it would have been to have gone into the service and to have become an Air Force Nurse. My wonderful friend, Nancy Lee, wanted to go to the Pentagon and be a secretary. Dreams. They were all just dreams. It was ten more years before I was able to become a nurse, because I got married and kicked out of school (and no, I wasn’t pregnant!). My friend, Nancy got married, too, and never made it to the Pentagon. Betsy got married, Linda got married, and Billie got married. Ope did too, although she went to IU first. That old gang of mine. I wonder what we would be doing if we hadn’t been hampered by the sexual discrimination of the 50’s? The choices were few for women. And not only that, we were expected to get married, barefoot and pregnant for a lifetime. Or, so it seems.

And yet, again, I heard that now high schools have nurseries in them to take care of the babies that teens have. Now how in the world is that going on with all the birth control available? We sure didn’t have birth control. We were raised in a “thou shalt not”generation. And the ones who didn’t heed that warning were marched to the altar to suffer the consequences. Lifelong consequences, in many cases. When are we ever going to get it right? Is the definition of being a teenager that you have to put a heavy burden on your back and carry it until you have good sense? Because we all know you don’t get good sense until at least 30, and then maybe not. I guess some don’t ever get it. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to go through life without good sense. Seems that having good sense lays a heavy burden on those who have it. If we had such good sense, why haven’t we figured out how to have it easy? Too many questions on this strange reflective evening.

Hope everybody had a good 4th of July. I’m at the lake house. I think I should stay here…but then…there are those Northern Indiana winters. I should be in Florida during the winter, like my friends, Ope and Nancy. What am I still doing here? Well…it’s about getting grandchildren raised, I guess. I’m not complaining. I wouldn’t take a million dollars for even one of them. They are treasures to be sure. But…I sure would like the warmth of Florida in the winter…just once.  Oh well…just sitting at my computer dreaming.

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Love to all my Waynedale friends,

Mae