Entry 19611130-2 — Backstory 16 — Revelations

_November 30, 1961, Milford, Ohio_

{psc} "Can you tell me what we did wrong as parents?" Esther asked Fran after she'd retrieved Elizabeth from school.

"What do you mean?" Fran asked, surprised by the question.

"Your sister snuck out and obviously had sex, and would have with Kenny, if his mother hadn't intervened. You were with Ben; please don't deny it."

"As I said, that's my business, and I won't confirm or deny it. I don't think you did anything wrong, really, as parents. I mean, Daddy is strict, but except for Bev Thompson, he doesn't interfere with me and my friends, and before Elizabeth was caught with Kenny, he didn't interfere with me going on dates, except to set a curfew. Well, and meet the boy when he came to pick me up."

"Bev Thompson is a bad influence," Esther said.

"Don't you think I can make my own decisions?" Fran asked. "And do you really think Bev Thompson is telling us to be intimate with boys?"

"You know as well as I do that seeing others behave in a certain way influences others to behave in the same way."

"Perhaps weak-minded individuals," Fran countered. "I get straight A's, am responsible, and can think for myself. If I were to decide to do it, it would be because I felt it was the right thing to do and because I wanted to do it. Whether Bev or anyone else had done it wouldn't matter at all. As for Elizabeth, she has never hung around Bev Thompson, so I'm not sure how Bev could influence Elizabeth."

"Then where does this behavior come from?" Esther asked.

"You were a teenager once, Mom! You should know!"

Esther couldn't help but laugh, "Yes, I was a teenager, but it was during World War II."

"Well," Fran said with a slight smile, "I've heard plenty of stories about babies born to single girls nine months after their boyfriends shipped out! And plenty of last-minute marriages. You dated a boy who died during the war; did you ever think about that? I'm not asking if you did or didn't because that's not my business. I'm only asking if you _thought_ about it."

Esther was more or less trapped, because she couldn't lie, and if pressed about what had happened, she'd use Fran's own answer against her.

"I think every teenager thinks about it once they hit puberty," Esther said. "But we're human beings, not animals, and we can control our urges."

"If we want to," Fran countered. "And there is no difference in how men and women should be treated, as Rabbi Goldfeder has taught many times."

"Fran, there are fundamental differences between men and women."

Fran couldn't help but roll her eyes, "Obviously! But that's biology, not ethics."

"And that biology means you could be in the family way, which would ruin your life."

"It would certainly make it very difficult," Fran countered. "But during World War II so many men were gone that millions of women didn't have a husband at home and millions of children didn't have a father, and the country didn't fall apart. In fact, it was stronger because of Rosie the Riveter!"

"My daughter is a feminist?" Esther asked.

Fran rolled her eyes again, "That word is used for any woman who doesn't act like a doormat and who doesn't behave like a wanton slut in her husband's bedroom!"

"Fran Sorkin!" Esther exclaimed.

"You should read the essay _A Room of One's Own_ by Virginia Woolf. Strong woman threaten men, and that's what led men to accuse women of witchcraft or harlotry. The title describes what is necessary for a woman to be independent — money and her own apartment. And women need access to equivalent education opportunities as men. That's what I want."

"But what about marriage? And children?"

"I simply need a man who will accept me as his equal, not a servant or a thing to be used for his pleasure."

"Is that how you see me?" Esther asked.

"Your relationship with Daddy is between you and Daddy. If you're happy, then who's to tell you that you're wrong? I want to have a career as well as a family. And unless we're talking about things which require strength, there is nothing a man can do that a woman cannot. I could be a doctor, an attorney, a business owner, a mechanic, or even President of the United States!"

"I think I'll stick with John F. Kennedy," Esther said with a wry smile.

"You understand my point, right?" Fran asked. "I want to go to college and have a career so that I am never dependent on a man. And that doesn't mean I won't marry or have children."

"What career? Or do you know?"

"Clinical psychology, I think. Which means a Master's degree, at least. Maybe even a PhD. I want to go to UC, and I want to live in the women's dormitory, not at home."

"Your father isn't going to like that."

"You're right, just as he won't like me applying for a job at the Ben Franklin, and won't like me buying a second-hand car that isn't a jalopy. But I'm going to do those things."

"It seems you've thought this through."

"Have you ever known me to be irrational or act capriciously?" Fran asked.

"No, I haven't," Esther admitted. "Your sister, on the other hand, acts impetuously."

"We have different approaches to reach he same goal," Fran said. "We both want to be independent and control our lives. I'm just a bit more considered in my choices. I need your help in convincing Daddy that's true, and that he doesn't have to watch me like a hawk."

"That's going to be difficult, given it was obvious what your sister has been doing and she's certainly not shy about describing what she's done in vulgar terms."

"What is Daddy going to do?"

"He's considering sending her to The Andrews Institute for Girls, an all-girls boarding school near Cleveland."

"He'd really do that?" Fran asked, shocked at the revelation.

"Consider that she's been with at least two different boys at age fourteen. She may not have surrendered her virtue to Kenny Burnside, but what she was doing was perhaps worse! You know the charges!"

Fran managed not to roll her eyes, because she didn't think there was anything wrong with oral sex, but obviously her mother did, and the law was on her mother's side. It was a stupid law, and the old men who made laws probably did it, even while making it illegal for anyone else to do!

"I don't think she's going to take that very well," Fran observed, "and it might turn out very badly."

"Worse than my daughter having a reputation?"

"Not to upset you, but Bev is basically an A student, even with a 'reputation'."

"But what man would want her?" Esther asked.

Fran laughed, "Think about that question!"

Esther smiled wryly, "I meant as a wife; men are happy to use women."

"Who says she's not using THEM?" Fran countered.

"Be serious, Fran!"

"I am! Bev is happy, is living her life the way she wants to, and is making good grades. She has a job, has her own car, and is going to Junior college next year to learn accounting. And as pretty as she is, I'm positive she'll find a guy who won't care about her past."

"And you think that's OK?" Esther asked.

"Yes, but not the way you mean. I think if Bev wants to live that way, she should. It's OK for _her_. That's not how I want to live my life. How I live my life is up to me and how Bev lives her life is up to her, just as how you and Daddy live your lives is up to you. And all of them are OK."

"You have some very strange ideas."

"Because it's the 1960s! It's not the 1950s or 1940s or 1930s! Times change, and people have to change with them! And you know what is going to make perhaps the biggest change?"

"What's that?"

"The new pill the government approved to prevent getting in the family way. It will give women control of when they have children and how many. They won't have to depend on men's decisions!"

"I believe that was a terrible mistake," Esther countered. "It's a license to act wantonly."

"Listen to yourself, Mom!" Fran protested. "I talk about controlling when and how a woman has children, and you go right to being loose!"

"Because it will happen, Frannie. Mark my words. Would you start dinner, please? The menu and recipe cards are on the counter. I need to speak with your sister."

"I will," Fran agreed. "And Mom, a piece of advice — listen to Liza, please."

Esther nodded and they left Fran's room, with Fran going to the kitchen while Esther went to the door of Elizabeth's room. She stopped before she went in, both composing and steeling herself. Fran had given her some things to think about, even if she didn't agree with everything Fran had said. Ready, she opened the door and went into Elizabeth's room.

"What happened to knocking?" Elizabeth growled accusingly at her mom.

Esther nearly responded in kind, but realized quickly she might gain a tiny bit of trust and respect by acknowledging that she'd broken a family rule.

"You're right," Esther said. "The family rule is to knock. I should have. I'm sorry."

"Uh-huh," Elizabeth replied noncommittally.

"Why are you behaving this way?" Esther asked.

"Because you and Dad treat me like a baby! I'm not a baby! I'm a woman! And I proved it!"

"There is far more to being a woman than spreading your legs for every boy who asks!" Esther countered.

"If I want to, that's my business!"

"And when you get in the family way or contract a social disease? Then what?"

"That's my problem!"

"No, young lady, it is not. You're fourteen, and a minor, and that makes it my problem and your father's problem."

"It's up to me what I do with my body!" Elizabeth protested.

"Which is not license to behave irresponsibly."

"Well, there's nothing you can do about it now," Elizabeth replied petulantly.

"You're right that we can't undo it," Esther agreed. "On the other hand, your father can send you to The Andrews Institute for Girls near Cleveland. He planned to call them today to find out if they have a place for you."

"I won't go!" Elizabeth declared.

"The only way to avoid it is to change your behavior, and show that you can be responsible."

"I was! I made sure he used a rubber!"

"Climbing out your window in the middle of the night to secretly meet a boy to have sex is not behaving responsibly!"

"What did you want me to do?! Dad had my boyfriend _arrested_!"

"And what did you expect your father to do when he discovered how you were behaving at age fourteen with Kenny Burnside?"

"It's not his business what I do! It's mine! If I want to do it, it's up to me, not him!"

"If you take that attitude with your father, he's going to send you to that school, Liza."

"He can't make me go, no matter what you think!"

Elizabeth was even more determined to run away to California, and she'd hitchhike if she had to. US Route 50 ran right through Milford, and it would take her all the way to California. The problem was money for food, but if she found the right guy — good-looking, young, and heading west — it could work. She could probably borrow some money from Julie, who always had pocket money, and Julie would never be a stool pigeon.

"If you think that," Esther said, "you're mistaken. I'm going to go help Fran with dinner. You should consider what you're going to say when you father comes home from work."

Elizabeth didn't respond, so Esther left the room, closing the door behind her. She didn't want to send her daughter away, but she also knew that Joshua would become enraged if Elizabeth spoke to him the same way she'd spoken the previous night. And once her husband was enraged, there was little Esther felt she could do to talk him out of sending her youngest daughter hundreds of miles way.

"How did it go?" Fran asked when Esther walked into the kitchen.

"Not well," Esther replied. "I'm afraid she's going to sass your father, and that will not lead to a happy result for any of us."

"And Daddy will take it out on me, too," Fran sighed.

"He likes Sam, and is friends with Isaac Mercer, so I think he'll allow Sam to visit on Sunday. I did the grocery shopping today and bought a roast, and your father knows that."

"Daddy will have you slice it for sandwiches if he says Sam can't come over."

"I think you'll be fine, Fran, though I don't think your dad is ready to hear the speech you gave me today."

"No, he's not," Fran agreed. "But I did broach the subjects of the car and of working, though I suggested Fazio's. Sam suggested I work for his dad, because they have a clerk who is leaving at the end of December. Sam is sure his dad will hire me. I'd work part-time after school and on the weekends."

"What about synagogue?" Esther asked.

"You know I like the rituals, but I'm not sure I believe in G-d. You and Daddy made sure we learned about the Holocaust, and if that doesn't prove that G-d doesn't exist, I don't know what would."

"Your father struggles the same way," Esther acknowledged. "Many times he's discussed not going to the synagogue every week. Just be careful how you approach that with him."

"He knows the Mercers don't go," Fran said. "I've heard him discuss it with Mr. Mercer, and agree with him on some things. Trust me, Mom, I'm not going to start eating bacon!"

Esther laughed, "My Christian friends swear by it!"

"Mine, too," Fran agreed. "I certainly like celebrating Passover and Chanukah, similar to Allison's family who only go to their church on Christmas and Easter."

"Just don't hit your dad with all your modern ideas at once, Frannie."

"I promise I won't, so long as he doesn't punish me for things Liza does."

"I'll do my best to help prevent that, but…"

"Daddy is in charge of the family."

"Yes, but I realized you don't agree. That said, he listens to what I think, and I have my ways of influencing his decisions."

"I'm not sure I want to know!" Fran declared.

"Francheska!" Esther protested.

"That response says I'm right, and I absolutely do not want to know!"

"Just chop the vegetables, young lady!"

"Yes, Mom."