1962

I just finished a wonderful book, "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. A member of our book group said we simply HAD to read this book. I was a little irritated when I found out it was only available in hardcover...against our group's "rules"....but now I completely agree with her. We HAD to read this book!

"The Help" is set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962-3 and tells the story of a white woman and two "colored" maids who did a very daring thing and changed their town forever. I'm not going to do a book review, but do have three very different commentaries to make: one serious reflection, one re-emergence of the red pencil wielding teacher, and a commentary on hair.

THE SERIOUS REFLECTION
In 1962-3 I was a senior in high school and began my first year of college. I grew up in segregated Chicago: on the very segregated south side until age 11, then in a lily white part of the north side. My parents had probably never had any personal contact with black people and had grown up living with the "lines" that separated white and black neighborhoods on the south side. My father always reminded us to lock our car doors when we drove through black neighborhoods on the way to visit my grandmother. Although I didn't hear hateful or racist things at home, there was fear and anxiety over "those people" moving into previously white areas. A bit later in the 60's my grandmother's neighborhood changed and, while she had a nice black family next door, the "change" was accompanied by some frightening violence by both whites and blacks. Our family was mighty relieved when my grandmother moved to a retirement home far from south side troubles.

As bad as Chicago was in those years, it was much worse in the Mississippi described so well in "The Help". I remember being astounded as a child when we witnessed "black" and "white" public drinking fountains while driving through the south on a vacation---something I hadn't ever seen in the north. In a thousand different ways, the author brings home how black maids were daily faced with black and white everything: not just water fountains or bathrooms but also not being allowed in the "white" grocery unless they were in uniform and not even being allowed in the public library. Unbelievably hateful and humiliating comments were made by white families to their maids, the very women whom they entrusted with raising their children. Powerful whites were able to maim or imprison a black person without any proof of wrong doing.

What blows my mind is how all this was going on when I was seventeen years old and I just went on living my teen-age life in my safe cocoon. I was vaguely aware of Martin Luther King, vaguely aware of some of the atrocities of bombed churches and murdered children, vaguely aware of the death of Medgar Evers, vaguely aware of peace marches. My real concerns, however, were buying prom dresses and passing physics.

I think my own children were much more aware of the world around them because they were exposed to more real current issues in their social studies and English classes. They also grew up surrounded by friends of many different cultures, so I don't think their world was every quite as cocoonish as mine was. I hope it wasn't, but do wonder if merely being a teenager prevents us from really seeing the world.

Fortunately, I grew up..

RED PENCIL WIELDING TEACHER
About page fifty of the book, the author mentioned panty hose and my ears pricked up! Panty hose had not yet been invented in 1962. I remember that very specifically because in 1967 I was in Mexico for a teacher program, ran out of nylons (which we HAD to wear daily because we "represented the US"), and had to make do with stockings for the average short statured Mexican woman. Not a pleasant experience!

The author also talked about frosted hair. Too early for that too!

Twice her characters greeted each other with "Hey". No one said "hey" in greeting until a few years ago!

One of the maids said something to a child about using markers in school. I'll have to google markers....but I know they weren't around in 1962.

Tsk Tsk

HAIR
White women spending hours under their hairdryers was mentioned several times in the book. I had forgotten those lovely items. You would "set" your wet hair using those awful metal brush rollers that felt like needles were pricking your scalp. Then you would put this big plastic hood over your head, click the thick plastic hose into the hood and the dryer mechanism, and sit somewhere unable to do anything but read for the hour or so it took to dry your hair.

Then, if your hair was anything like mine, it would do exactly what it wanted to do anyway!

I plan to say a special thank you to my blow dryer tomorrow morning when I spend approximately three minutes drying my hair....and letting it do exactly what it wants to do anyway.