Dangers of Reading

 Can you imagine a world without reading, if you were a woman?  At the time listed, women were little more than a breeder, servant, a stay-at-home mother and wife.  

life of a woman

fantasy vs. reality

Why were women discouraged from reading? “In Madame Bovary, I think Flaubert is channeling a century of worries about young women as particularly susceptible to the fantasies they find in novels and the seductions of reading,” Margaret Cohen, a professor of French language, literature and civilization, told Op-Talk.

From the late 18th century through the middle of the 19th, she added, women “were considered to be in danger of not being able to differentiate between fiction and life.”

Try that again, and bad things will happen to men who try to dictate who and what a woman was. Bring it, and see how women react to that.  

Passion of the Pearl: Letter P

Souce: namu project

The Letter P

Could it be perfume, pink, pandering, pancakes ...?

Strong to my traditional form, the letter P is for:
Pearl

Pearl harbored serious obsession here.

This Pearl is Great-Aunt Pearl, whom I knew only by reputation and photos. Grandmother Amy was the oldest of three sisters with the middle sister Grace and youngest sister Pearl. 

In 1911, Pearl was in high school, with all the expectations of any young woman in the early 1900s, which were basically marriage, children, and home.


But, OH, first came the tender innocent love, romance with its soft touches, shy kisses, sweet words...

In her English textbook, Pearl practiced writing her name, over and over.  Other pages were covered with doodles and sketches, dreamy sketches of young men.  
Even her perception of Hell expressed a passionate moment in her life.

This textbook must have been all over the classroom, passed from girl to girl.  Squelched giggles and hurried scribbles asked and answered questions.  Comments and questions (what did he say about me?...Certainly I know that YOU know!..Girls are made to flirt with men---But men with girls??  Oh! No!...) ***

 Pearl's dreams of romance were recorded for a great-niece to find:

The drawings and notes were found in History of English Literature by Reuben Post Halleck, M.A  (Yale), published by the American Book Company in 1900.

Pearl married shortly after graduation, at the age of eighteen or so.  The man she married was named Fred, who was rather plain and balding early, liked to fish, and was not greatly ambitious.  He was the very antithesis of the ideal heroic man of her dreams. 

On March 6, 1913, in a double wedding, Pearl married Fred Funk AND
her sister Grace married John Friend.

Whenever I asked my grandmother about her sister Pearl, she would sigh and say, "Oh, Pearl..."

I was an over-achiever.  I never did any of this.  Seriously.


Imagine what Pearl and her friends could have done with Smart Phones.

***Copied from the text book, written in pencil.

Now, what did YOU do during a high school class?  Be honest, now!

Hometowns Have Long Memories

Source: Point Pleasant, West Virginia

It was nearly three a.m. when Donna drove along the Main Street in her hometown, Grandview.  How many years had it been? She asked herself. 

Donna had been a clerk in the local drugstore, working with kindly Mr. Jameson.  Those days had been so simple, so happy.

That was when the “incident” occurred.  Ol’ Miz Grandview, the founder of the city, had staggered into the store, in obvious distress.  “I’ve been drugged, drugged, I tell you.”  Then she collapsed on the floor.

From her dead hand rolled the prescription, filled by Mr. Jameson himself.  “This is not the prescription I gave her!”  Sweat beaded on his forehead, as he remembered what he had been doing that day.

Mr. Jameson had been in the storage room that day, hidden in a scandalous  and passionate embrace with Mrs. Calhoun.  No one knew, and now what?

“SHE did it!” He pointed at Donna .  “SHE replaced the pills!”

The trial was quick and the jury could not agree to a verdict.  Donna left town, nearly forty years ago.  Mrs. Jameson finally confessed to the crime which sent her to die in the electrocution chair, frying as her husband sobbed.

What am I doing here?” Donna wondered.  She honestly did not know.

Many thanks to Delores @Under the Porch Light!  Every Wednesday, Delores puts up some very challenging words for readers to use in creating prose, poetry, whatever.  Please check her site!!

PhotoPrompt: A boy and his horse

From Delores @ Thefeatherednest

When Pa brought Ol’ Lightnin’ home, Wilbur threw on the saddle on its back, cinched it up, and leaped onto the horse.  Giddeeup! He had shouted, and the horse took off.

The first minutes of full-on galloping were beyond Wilbur’s expectations.  This is like flying!

In the next few minutes, Wilbur became concerned.  This isn’t what I expected.

Then he thought, Oh, dear Lord!  Make this horse stop!

Finally, when the horse had run around the pasture, it came to a full stop.  The incredible pain in his gonads had Wilbur frozen in agony.

Pa took a picture, chuckled, and walked away.