Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
The Question of Time: What Was Life Like in 1963?
ZouBEini:
Hello Fontaine, I wish I had lived near you! The midwest, at least in small burgs and towns wasn't nearly as accepting. Sad really.
It's great to get different peoples' views of things back then. I enjoyed reading your story - thanks! ;D
~Larz
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: ZouBEini on July 06, 2006, 08:28:58 pm --- The midwest, at least in small burgs and towns wasn't nearly as accepting. Sad really.
--- End quote ---
Not necessarily! Here's another happy story:
My aunt Susan, my dad's sister, now 70-something, has lived with another woman as long as I've been alive. Susan and Dorothy like to fish, so they lived in a nice lakeside cabin on the far fringe of a big metropolitan area -- call it the exurbs, I guess -- though both held fairly high-powered, high-paying jobs in the city. My dads's family is a very friendly group, and everyone has always treated Dorothy exactly the same friendly way they treat all the other spouses. I couldn't vouch that all of my relatives are perfectly open-minded about homosexuality in general; some probably aren't. But they've never let it affect the way they treat Susan and Dorothy.
Still, nobody in the family ever talked about the nature of the women's relationship. As a kid, I just figured they was good friends who lived together simply because they hadn't found husbands. Then in my late teens, I finally got it, and asked my mom whether they were gay. (My mom and dad were long divorced by then.) My mom said she had never heard anybody mention it one way or the other.
After they retired, Susan and Dorothy moved to Dorothy's hometown -- a tiny Midwestern farm town -- and bought a big Victorian house and filled it with antiques, fixed it up real nice. Their status as a couple, though still never discussed openly, began to seem a bit more tacitly understood.
And here's the part I love. Not long after they'd arrived, my aunt decided to run for mayor. Though a newcomer to the town, Susan ran against the incumbent -- and won! Served several terms. From what I gather, she was a great mayor.
Now, Susan is extremely personable and funny and smart. I was always proud of her for this. But I was also proud of the little town, and of the Midwest. Though it might have been possible back in the '60s and '70s to just take Susan and Dorothy as roommates and leave it at that, by the '90s I don't think you could meet them without wondering if, maybe even assuming, they're lesbians. Yet they are popular and active in the town's social life (understandably; as I say they're really likable). Whatever prejudices the residents of this little town might have, they didn't let them become an issue in their relationship with Susan and Dorothy.
Susan and Dorothy have since moved out of their big Victorian house into a smaller but comfy townhouse. They spend winters in the Southwest, and have decorated their new home in Southwestern style. They travel a lot throughout the year -- they have made it their goal to visit all of the presidential libraries. They live a sweet life!
Front-Ranger:
What a great story! I wonder if it could have been the same for a male couple.
ZouBEini:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on July 07, 2006, 11:19:45 am ---What a great story! I wonder if it could have been the same for a male couple.
--- End quote ---
I was thinking the same thing, Front-Ranger.
latjoreme, in general - what part of the country was this? Sounds like some of the east is more open-minded than the midwest farm areas at that time. Now I'm curious.
LOL - let's map it out, shall we? :D
~Larz
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: ZouBEini on July 07, 2006, 10:33:06 pm ---latjoreme, in general - what part of the country was this? Sounds like some of the east is more open-minded than the midwest farm areas at that time. Now I'm curious.
--- End quote ---
Hi Larz! Susan and Dorothy initially lived in the exurbs of Miinneapolis. They moved to a small town in Iowa, near the Minnesota border. So, definitely Midwest farm area ... although Minnesota is very blue-state and, in general, usually pretty socially liberal as well. Iowa, not as much.
But as you and Front-Ranger note, it's quite possible that two men might have had a different experience than my aunt and Dorothy.
Katherine
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