Interview with a crone
We are in her living room, best described as one of the coziest environments on planet earth. This isn 't your typical grandma’s house. It 's a casual mix of modern, rustic, scholar and outdoors. It is a beautiful paradox. She sits across from me in a rocker. Her white hair glimmers in the warm glow of the standing lamp. She was born in 1948 in what is now known as Meadville Medical Center. She lived on a chicken farm outside of Cochranton until age five. Then her family picked up and moved to Florida, where all of her primary and secondary schooling took place. Her name is Karen; she is my grandmother. To clarify, she’s technically my step grandmother, but I love her all the same. I chose to interview her because our …show more content…
She also informed me, the older generation was who she looked up to, she wasn 't necessarily shaped by the girls around her. When questioned about the typical style of girls around her, the main word she chose was “conservative.” She grew up in villager dresses, villager skirts and blouses, and shorts were reserved for gym class. On the beauty front, make up wasn 't that popular, but teasing hair was all the rage for girls her age. What did they do once they were all dressed up? Country clubs, girl scouts, dances and beaches were the common pastimes for her and friends. Without being prompted she quickly added “In my area, there wasn 't any girls teams at school.” and “We really were not very athletic at all.” These comments struck me. Knowing this was a paper on Feminism, she must have found that important to add to the conversation, and I was extremely glad she did. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, I was always conditioned to participate in sports. It was often thrown in my face that athletes made better students than nonathletes. Because of this, I had grown up despising sports, and I never realized the privilege of being able to participate in …show more content…
How similar? She sees young women with more confidence and the ability to get what they want. When talking with her she tells me she “had to be careful of what I wanted.” Now girls have the opportunity to prove themselves, and anything they want to do is available to them.
She ended our interview by saying “ I have a lot of fun watching young women now days when they come out of school and knowing that the world could be their oyster, but still they have to be careful because they have to be good enough. It 's not good enough to just be a woman The door won 't open just because you 're a woman. You have to be good enough.” This truly touched me. Without all these events my grandmother wouldn’t be the strong, independent, educated and opinionated woman I look up to today. I’m thankful for the lay out of this assignment because of the personal aspect it had. This was an extremely eye opening experience for me not only because I learned more about my grandma but also because I learned of privilege I
We are in her living room, best described as one of the coziest environments on planet earth. This isn 't your typical grandma’s house. It 's a casual mix of modern, rustic, scholar and outdoors. It is a beautiful paradox. She sits across from me in a rocker. Her white hair glimmers in the warm glow of the standing lamp. She was born in 1948 in what is now known as Meadville Medical Center. She lived on a chicken farm outside of Cochranton until age five. Then her family picked up and moved to Florida, where all of her primary and secondary schooling took place. Her name is Karen; she is my grandmother. To clarify, she’s technically my step grandmother, but I love her all the same. I chose to interview her because our …show more content…
She also informed me, the older generation was who she looked up to, she wasn 't necessarily shaped by the girls around her. When questioned about the typical style of girls around her, the main word she chose was “conservative.” She grew up in villager dresses, villager skirts and blouses, and shorts were reserved for gym class. On the beauty front, make up wasn 't that popular, but teasing hair was all the rage for girls her age. What did they do once they were all dressed up? Country clubs, girl scouts, dances and beaches were the common pastimes for her and friends. Without being prompted she quickly added “In my area, there wasn 't any girls teams at school.” and “We really were not very athletic at all.” These comments struck me. Knowing this was a paper on Feminism, she must have found that important to add to the conversation, and I was extremely glad she did. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, I was always conditioned to participate in sports. It was often thrown in my face that athletes made better students than nonathletes. Because of this, I had grown up despising sports, and I never realized the privilege of being able to participate in …show more content…
How similar? She sees young women with more confidence and the ability to get what they want. When talking with her she tells me she “had to be careful of what I wanted.” Now girls have the opportunity to prove themselves, and anything they want to do is available to them.
She ended our interview by saying “ I have a lot of fun watching young women now days when they come out of school and knowing that the world could be their oyster, but still they have to be careful because they have to be good enough. It 's not good enough to just be a woman The door won 't open just because you 're a woman. You have to be good enough.” This truly touched me. Without all these events my grandmother wouldn’t be the strong, independent, educated and opinionated woman I look up to today. I’m thankful for the lay out of this assignment because of the personal aspect it had. This was an extremely eye opening experience for me not only because I learned more about my grandma but also because I learned of privilege I