A Great Time to Be Female, 1997, by Randy Summers
From MemoryArchive
Who: Randy Summers What: Opportunities for Females When: September 1997 Where: Pleasant Hill, California
He’s retired now, but all of his civilian career he was a public school teacher. All three of our boys and my wife and I know him as a middle school teacher in Pleasant Hill. Before he returned to civilian life, he was “an Army-looking dude,” probably early Vietnam Era. Pretty much everybody calls him “Mr. Spo,” short for Spottiswoode.
I actually did not hear him say this. Matt our youngest son came home and told us this. Evidently, on the very first day of middle school back in the fall term of 1997 when Matt and his friends and classmates were just starting out at Pleasant Hill Middle School, Mr. Spo was saying a few words of introduction and orientation about the year ahead. For some reason, he included these words:
“Now is the best time in the history of the world to be female, especially for a female in the United States.”
A couple of weeks ago I saw on Google News, that the next President of Harvard had been chosen: a woman. I instantly go into the other room, and tell my wife. She matter-of-factly said, Yes, she had heard that on the car radio on the way home from work. I was a little surprised she had nonchalanted it, but she has been very busy at work, and likely had enough on her mind to warrant overlooking repeating a bit of news she happened to hear on KCBS News on the car radio on her way home from work.
A little before the news about the new President of Harvard, the US Speaker of the House of Representatives was in the news, for the first time, another female. Back when it was in the theatres, my wife and I made a point of going to see the movie The Devil Wears Prada. I was particularly interested in comparing Meryl Streep’s playing a “difficult woman” [that’s a euphemism] to one of Bette Davis’s role, especially Regina Giddens in Lillian Hellman’s masterpiece The Little Foxes. (Report: Meryl Steep is very, very good, but Miss Davis still has the franchise on “difficult women,” as I say.)
I think of another Meryl Streep role. Do you remember the movie Out of Africa from the 80s? I remember it won some Academy Awards. I think it may be my favorite Meryl Streep movie. All Bette Davis fans remember the line “A vacation of thinking” from the The Little Foxes when Regina is bickering with her husband. For Meryl Streep, the single word "Whisky" in it may be her most famous line, in a long and varied career. It occurs at the end of the story when Karen Blixen is leaving Kenya and going back home to Denmark. The Director of the Club comes out to her in the lobby, and asks if he could stand her a drink as a way of saying Good-Bye. The drama is, the Club rules are that females are not allowed in the Bar Room of the Club. Nevertheless, Karen Blixen accompanies the man into the room, and walks with him up to the bar, and without hesitation, says, "Whisky!"
Astounded, the dutiful servant behind the bar, an elegant Sikh, looks to the Director for help. Without hesitation, the Director indicates with his fingers, and says, "Two!" Then the noble-looking servant, with an assistant looking on, carefully pours two glasses of whisky.
Before she takes a sip, she raises her glass, and makes a short toast, saying, "To rose-lipt maidens...and light-foot lads." The others in the room, all men, raise their glasses, instantly saying, "Hear! Hear!"
Scenes like that are still being played out nearly a hundred years later, as more rooms are being opened, more lights turned green, and more ceilings busted through...every day. And, I do believe that Mr. Spo was right when he said nearly ten years ago that now is the best time in the history of the world to be a female.
