Grammie's Stories

As I am spending time in Maine with my grandparents, my life consists of several things, some outdoors and some in. My mom and I are biking a lot along the coast. I did Pilates this morning when I woke up, and then lazily read for a while, watched a movie, did laundry, went rock searching and so on. My rock collection is growing. Since there is nothing else to be doing with my time, why not collect rocks? Seems a good use of the plenty of time I have.

I have also been asking my grandmother about her parents and about her life as well. I have learned the most random things. For instance, when she was applying for jobs, after graduating from college, she said that she couldn’t find a job as a chemist. First of all as background information, when Grammie was in high school, she took physics, which girls just did not do in her day. She was one of two girls to take the class. It comes as no surprise, even after the Rosies changed the workforce, that in the 1940s, women were not allowed to be chemists. Except to wash the bottles and such as she pointed out. Also, one job listed the requirement that she not become pregnant for five years. She obviously refused since my uncle was born. These were interesting facts. To realize that in my grandmother’s lifetime, women did not have the opportunities that they have today. I have often said that I am tired of the feminist criticism that is debated in my English classes, and I still maintain that they are overly discussed at this point, but my grandmother lived through the injustice.

She went to a women’s college, a part of Rutger’s University in New Jersey, where curfew was 7:00 p.m. If she wasn’t in her dormitory by that time, the doors were locked, and the girls had to find a watchman to let them in and rebuke them. When I asked her if he was harsh in the scolding, she said she didn’t know because she never did it. She never got in trouble. I asked her if being in by 7:00 p.m. was hard, to which she said, “no! I was sixteen years old! Where was I going to be?” I also asked her how life was during the War, but she said that she didn’t notice. “I was in college. When you’re in college, you’re in your own little world.” I loved that. Men were not supposed to visit the girls. Not even her brother could come without special permission. She remarked that nowadays, colleges have no regulations. (I thought, BYU does). But I am grateful that curfew is not at 7:00 p.m.

Her mother, my great-grandmother Anna Charlotte, apparently lied to her husband and the government about her age. She didn’t want to be two years older than him so she said that she was born in 1895 on government documents to youthen up. But Grammie found her birth certificate and uncovered the secret. She said that she didn’t think that her father ever knew that she lied. Sounds like a womanly thing to do. I really laughed at this bit.

And my great-grandfather, Howard Skyler Mahany, obviously liked tourism because rather than regular industry. He came over from Ireland when he was eighteen. As an entrepreneur, he owned an excursion boating company that ran up and down the Hudson River and an excursion bus industry.


Grandpa Quotes

I usually write with a pen and paper.
Cell phones. Biggest waste of time.
Why do you keep music on your computer?
Well, where is your IPOD?