When you’re lucky enough to have lived a long life, as I have done,
your role is to remind us how far we have come. –Gloria Steinem

A Long Way, Baby

women only in dresses
men in work overalls
dinner on and at the table when he gets home
meat, potato, vegetable
tv trays and foil banquet dinners
metal lunch pails with handles
blood-won strong unions

Lawrence Welk and Geritol
RCA Victor dog with gramophone
vinyl 33, 45, 78 rpm platters
wooden cabinet stereos
reel to reel tape decks
cassette tape players
8-track players

silent movies with keyboard
or captions, Charlie Chaplin
Buster Keaton, Little Rascals
black and white nickolodean
three channels,
(cheap!) cigarette commercials
Ed Sullivan

Indian Boarding Schools
Magdalene Laundries
Jim Crow and redlining
draft and delinquency conscripts
Vietnam War coffins televised
bra and flag burning
freedom fighters assassinated

The title is part of a slogan for Virginia Slims cigarettes, “We’ve come a long way, baby.”

I am today’s host of dVerse’ OpenLinkNight. I’ve chosen to write to the optional Gloria Steinem quote, shown at the top of the post.