Monday, August 22, 2011

I didn't grow up in the South, but I did grow up in the 60's.

We didn't have "the help" but we did have Mabel.

And oh how I loved Mabel. I was a little girl and I loved my Mabel.

To my Mabel I could do no wrong.

And to me, she was perfect.

I did not know about color. I did not know the difference of someone paid to work in your home and someone who wanted to be there.

Back then; I did not know the word "maid" would become a four-letter word.

When Mabel met her prince charming, Bobbie, married and left us, I could not understand. I still have a hard time with anyone leaving and I still don't understand!

After seeing the movie "the help" it made me wonder about how many things I did not see as I was growing up.

I don't know how Mabel came to work. I don't know if she had to walk for miles like" the help" in the movie. I guess I should have paid more attention.

I don't know how she was paid. But I'm reasonably sure a retirement package was not in her future.

We had a small ranch house and were not rich. But we had Mabel and I assume everyone else in the neighborhood a Mabel too.

I'm also sure that the house I grew up in was never as clean as when we had Mabel, and my home today sure could use Mabel. I think I can be pretty sure in saying no home in America is as clean as it was in the days "the help" did the windows and everything else that needed to be done.

In the 60's my Dad, who owned his own business, had an African-American salesman named Larry. Larry had this huge Afro and as a little girl I used to ask him if I could touch it. A customer in southern Ohio refused to allow Larry to call on him. My dad had a choice to make. As a small business owner it was not an easy choice. My dad chose Larry over the customer.

What is especially interesting is that when my dad built his company building, he built it with a separate bathroom for "colored". My dad did not grow up in the south either. But in 1960 he did not use the same bathroom. In 1968, he lost business to fight racism.

Like the country, he was changing quickly too.