The only time I’ve ever felt discriminated against because I was female was when I was a child and the Soapbox Derby was held in our town.
In those days, I was such a tomboy. In my family, that was okay. Mama and Daddy raised all of us (3 girls and 3 boys) pretty much the same way. Mama used to say, “Girls can do anything boys can do, except stand up and potty.”
Never a frilly girly-girl, I was always happiest up in a tree reading, building a tree house, or helping Daddy with one of his building projects. I was also usually barefoot, one or both knees skinned, Bandaids on stubbed toes, and dirty from digging for pirate treasure.
But I would have given my left leg to be allowed by the derby folks to build a soapbox car and race it. But in those days, only boys were allowed in the derby. I do remember being there, watching, dreaming, and imagining. Sitting in the grass, I could almost feel the wind on my cheeks as I raced downhill, full-tilt towards the black and white checkered finish line.
Then one day, when Robert and I lived in Pennsylvania, I got the surprise of a lifetime. Our three-story duplex commanded a spectacular view of town from where we lived on top of a steep hill on West Long Avenue in DuBois.
Imagine my excitement when I awoke to the clamor of voices cheering and trucks being thrown into gear as they climbed the steep hill where we lived! I could see the rainbow colors of soapbox derby cars parked between the freshly painted lines on the curb — right outside our front door on race day!
As I dressed to go out, I peeked through the curtains again. I couldn’t believe my eyes! There were girls out there with derby numbers on their shirts and I was suddenly that little tomboy again.
With joy and awe I watched and cheered them on as they raced downhill full-tilt with the wind on their cheeks, smiles on their faces, to the black and white checkered finish line below ...
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Sounds like your house had a "box seat" to the derbies. What a very cool surprise. As for the female competitors--the wheels of progress turn slower than a box cart's, and perhaps a little too slow for our generation, but the young women today, if they really work hard at it, have a good chance to race with the big boys. Unfortunately, sometimes the perception of "progress" for women, as with other oppressed groups, is a little brighter than the reality but still, that glass ceiling is showing lots of cracks...I just hope when the women take over, they're the Right Kind of women--because some of the more financially successful ones today are just as hard-hearted as their businessmen counterparts.