Women's Groups and their Impact on my Life

I have long been an active part in women's groups. I'm not sure why; but I find them very educational and fun. It could be that since early on, I hung out with my mother and my grandmother and learned to feel comfortable and at home with even a couple of women. It could be the kind of person I am (being tested at a Human Resources class at UAA, I came out ENFJ on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). Extroversion, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging. Or it could have been growing up with my three female cousins.

Hanging out with my mother and grandmother while they went on shopping trips, buying things that my Mom couldn't find in Oklahoma. They would hobnob all over east Texas shopping for bras to shoe-stretchers. In the same area, my three female cousins lived conveniently close to the same town as my grandmother and we'd get together and dress up in our mothers' dresses and put on what they called 'ear screws', high heels and lipstick.

During my growing up years, I'd stay the summer with my aunt Margie & uncle Jack & my three female cousins. I seemed to be the ring leader in getting them to laugh at night, getting all of us in trouble. We went swimming together at the local pool. This relationship continued as we got older. I would spend summers with them in St Louis, MO: Jonesboro, ARK; and Kansas City.

I remember my aunt & uncle took us to a teen concert (The Gentrys "Keep on Dancing") and at that time we were also going to their country club for dances. By the time we were attending college, my oldest cousin would be showing me a dance called the 'hitchhiker' and telling me about beer busts and good times. I'm sure that I shared my experience with those subjects too!

I left college after seven semesters, mostly because I was too busy socializing and partying. My roommates at Central State in Edmond,OK were alot of fun to be with and we all hung out together. I had to leave school because of my grades and my mother found me a job. I, of course, was still communicating with my friends at school. They wanted to pick me up and go to Norman, OK for a party one weekend and they wanted to fix me up with a blind date. I got no permission to go from my stern father.

So we friends arranged for them to pick me up at work and we'd go to Norman and have fun. They fixed me up with a nerdy but cute guy who had a new Barracuda. It was a great weekend! We all had a blast together. So they brought me home and thank goodness we had company (to get the attention off of me) and my grandparents were there. The guy I met on the blind date called to ask me out and he picked me up in Shawnee, OK and took me to Norman, OK for the date and then take me back home to Shawnee. He took me to his mother's house to live until we got married; and then we got engaged and got married. We went to Carlsbad Caverns for our honeymoon. So I will always be appreciative of these friends for extending themselves for me!