This is a photo from Horne Hall, December 1963. We all got up at 5:00 a.m. to exchange gifts before we headed home for the holidays. My roomies in order: Joy, Judy, Marlene, me, Pat, and Janet.
I was thinking about the gifts that Pat gave each of us. I certainly don't remember what I gave people on that occasion, but I have never forgotten how Pat had gotten little, tiny glass figurines that represented each one of us - and then she wrote a poem about each one of us. I don't have the figurine anymore - but I think maybe the poem is somewhere in my "stuff." But I remember the first line,
"Here's Barb, with her chic new "double-bubble,"
Marlene wore her hair in a "double-bubble" which means she teased the bottom into a bubble. Then she teased the top into another bubble on top of it. It was indeed chic. And for someone who'd spent the last several years looking like Mary Martin in Peter Pan, it was quite a change for me to adopt the hair style.
Pat was a wonderful roommate - she was a couple of years older than us - she was a junior in fact - and she was hard-working and serious and so kind and helpful. And she washed her hair with Tide. (I tried it a couple of times, but it was pretty harsh, so I gave it up.) And she is the reason I was an English major.
Pat: What is your major?
Me: I don't know, maybe math?
Pat: Math is hard.
Me: Maybe French?
Pat: Language majors take more time.
Me: Maybe English?
Pat: Good choice.
As I think about the role of sisterhood in the lives of LDS women, I realize that I came to love other women the way I loved my sisters as I lived with these girls for two years at BYU. I was really learning about the sisterhood that is Relief Society, but I didn't know that then. And I'm not sure that the church or BYU even realized the role this played in shaping our future interactions in the church.
Women can be each other's best friends - or worst enemies. And Relief Society provides a divine forum for learning to become one another's best friends.
I will always be grateful for those college years of living, loving, and learning to grow together as women. It was a good training ground!
I felt that our Women's Conference today was a beautiful testimony of growing and learning together as women of God. And it all started way back when!!
6 comments:
Here you are again posting on one of my favorite topics! I wish I could have been at your Women's Conference.
It was a great conference - maybe next year you will have to come spend the weekend and join us!!
Oh Barb, and what an English Major you still are! Your excellent heart-felt word crafting about "Sisterhood" brings "Happy Tears" to my eyes.
You're the best Roommate ever and you're still the person who keeps us together.
Who in the world did we get to take our photo at 5:00 AM?
Notice the sign in back of us that says, "Time Is The Monitor Of Life?" I made that in my lettering class...it's hand done, no computers in those days. I also remember one saying, "Bread, The Staff of Life."
I'll bet it was the Texas girl from next door.
And I remember all those signs - they were better than the computer ones are now - because they are "real!"
Re: "Women can be each other's best friends - or worst enemies."
So true!
I very much enjoyed this post, for many reasons.
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