First professional baseball game, Portland Beavers in Portland Oregon , I was about 10 and I can still remember what it looked and smelled like. We recently remodeled that wonderful old stadium and the first year it reopened they had gourmet food served and it didn’t smell right. The second year they went back to hot dogs, hamburgers, beer and popcorn. Then it smelled perfect. The same year I attended my first Ballet it was Swan Lake.

Ten years ago I downsized and was living with a lifetime of books & art that eventually caused claustrophobia. One of the most difficult chores I’ve had to do was sort through and decide what I could live without five years ago. Those books covered the entirety of my life. I could just see one of them and remember what I learned or felt when I read it. As I carefully sorted I took them to our famous Powell’s Books and sold the ones they would buy and took the balance to Goodwill. The credit at Powell’s gave me more books to bring home. It actually gets funny after awhile. I discovered some books on my shelves that I didn’t know were there. I think some of my older family members ‘aunts’ slipped them in knowing they would be safe at my house. I have an odd assortment of Novels written by women for women from 1895 to 1944 and a medical book about sex for women published in 1907. I haven’t had the guts to get rid of those yet. I even had to buy another copy of Katherine Graham’s autobiography. I’d just sold it months before. In spite of all my good efforts the place is filling up again. I’ve been working my memoir for the last year and half. It’s hard work but riviting.

Kay, you are absolutely right. I confess to being a life long Republican who voted for McCain eight years ago in the primary. He spent the last eight years cosing up to the conservative base and can not be trusted to be the independent thinker he was once. We can’t afford the have the Republicans in office to appoint any more conservatives to the Supreme Court, we women will no legal protections left.

They look like four year olds who dressed themselves and got out of the house before their mom saw them.

Jenny when you finish that I suggest all her books, they do clear up a great deal about the world today. Also Thomas Cahill’s books, 5 so far, they are called the hinges of history. Much easier read than Karen Armstrong. We really are all knitted together.

After owning a full set of Charles Dickens for ten years I finally started to read and reread his work. He had me laughing out loud with his account of his trip to the United States in 1842. I had forgotten how funny he could be and how current his writing. Now I’m reading Sketches by Boz which are the first pieces he wrote for his newspaper during the time he was working as a reporter. These pieces are descriptions of his friends, family, neighbors, and the areas around London. Some are hilarious. Also over the last months I’ve worked my way to Volume 111 of A History Of Private Life. This volume covers the Renaissance. I have one volume to go before I have to look for a second hand copy of Volume five that was written about five or six years after these four were published. I think what is so fascinating is how little we have learned as human beings.

After thought! That wonderful training I received from AT&T stood me in good stead as I learned to run my business. I couldn’t have succeded with out it.

In 1963 I was hired along with 4 other young women in New Orleans by AT&T for what they told us was a great opportunity. We all received professional marketing and financial training for these business equipment sales positions. We were told they were hiring five women each state to see if women were capable of working in this capacity. I was successful and we received fancy plaques and fancy lunches for our efforts. Of course women’s wages. After about 11 months I had a run in with one of the men who worked for Southern Bell in the same job. Some how we had accidentally been given the same client. I discovered he was making more then four times what I was making. In fact his wages were twice what my husband was making at the time as a brand new engineer flying for Delta Airlines. Instead of being the recipient of a wonderful opportunity, I’d become a cheap replacement. Because my husband was transferred to Dallas I didn’t have to address the issue with the company. After the move to Dallas I was unable to find a like job with the Bell system and was no longer satisfied with a mindless “woman’s job”. After about a year of woman’s wages and my husband’s receipt of his first big paycheck. I decided I needed a man’s job, one that paid a decent wage to keep the balance of power in our household. After months of being told that I was too young, too pretty or being asked what I’d do if someone made a pass at me. I gave up for a while. Then I put together a proposal for a small business. I took my idea to the First National Bank of Irving Texas. The manager a Mr. Brown agreed to sit down with me and go over my ideas. I believed I knew exactly how much money I needed. He said he would give me a loan to start my business. I had absolutely no credit in my name. He asked if I wanted to do the paper work right then. I hesitated and he said I might was well get started. So he helped me fill out the Sole Proprietor papers for the state. He helped me decide on a name. Then he set up my first business checking account, insisting I borrow enough to run my business for six more months that I had figured I needed plus enough to make make my first 90 day payment on a renewal note at 8%. I remember walking out of the bank with the paperwork in my hands just as the sun broke out of the clouds and blinded me in reflection on the water in the parking lot. I almost went back and gave it all back to him. I felt like I was walking off a cliff. By the time my husband got back from a four day trip, a lot of that money was gone and all he could do was worry that he might have to pay it back. I learned when I went to make the first payment that Mr Brown had broken Texas state law by giving me that loan without my husband’s signature. I paid that loan back in 18 months and the business succeeded. Mr. Brown had changed my life. My husband would have never signed a note for me. I’ll never know what I said or did that convinced that man that I, a young wife and mother, could make a go of a business on my own in 1966.

Is there anyone here who can remember when no one was sure who was going to be the nominee before the conventions. We here in Oregon haven’t had a chance to vote yet. You are tired because of all the states who moved their primaries and front loaded this process. I love this. By the time they get to the convention they will be better candidates. Now you Democrats get busy and elect a candidate I can vote for. I would love to vote for a woman before I die. I’m 71 and I’ve been waiting a long time.

Dr.McGinnis, I wasn’t refering to the people who live on the heights and have a medical practice. I was refering to the patients who lost their logging and mill jobs and can’t afford to see you any longer when they’re ill.

Doesn’t anyone who answers these comments live in a small town? He was absolutely right on. Maybe they just behave that way an gather together because they are confortable there. Here in Oregon small towns in the eastern and southern part of the state could be described in exactly that way. Most of those towns voted Republican in the last few elections and received absolutely nothing for their loyality. Their children are still moving away for jobs.

That sounds great but that isn’t what happened. The old values of the Republican party were thrown into the ashcan by this administration. No one, no one has driven up the national debt more than Bush’s bunch. I’m a lifetime Republican and I’m embarrased by his spending habits and poor stand on the freedom of the individual in this country. I voted for McCain in the primary eight years ago but won’t this time because we as women can’t afford eight more years of Republican additions to the Supreme Court. Please, you Democrats please pick a good candidate for me to vote for. Bev

I want to agree about Gingrich’s behavior during Clinton’s administration. His actions cost us 80 million dollars to find out clinton got a … and the only one who cared was his wife. Until the last 8 years I’d never before been so embarrased to be a Republican.

While I was married I had that role with two married men and their wives. These were the only men my husband didn’t make a fuss about [reason unknown, he sure fussed about others.] It was lovely and I expected to be able to do it with others after the end of my 32 years marriage. Didn’t happen. The relationship didn’t change with the original two but my status as available seemed to change the way men and women saw me. I was not looking for another personal man in my life but both men and women couldn’t seem to trust that. It was sad.

Checked your site out after Charlie listed you on his e-mail program listing. Your interview with him was great. Ann Richards and Molly Ivins will be missed. Recently learned that Barbara Jordan was one of her advisers when she ran for governor the first time. I was pointing out that at one time I thought Barbara Jordan might become our first black and female president. Two of the best speeches I ever saw were delivered by Ann and Barbara. Imagine how much fun we would have right now if they were still with us. Congratulations on your new endeavor.