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They Had Rules
Oh So Many Rules
Perhaps they felt the world would fall apart without rules? Maybe they thought their identification as white, Protestant, middle-class parents was dependent on rules? Perhaps breaking one of the rules was was not unlike a sin, except that white, middle-class parents didn’t use the word “sin.” That was a Catholic word. As a child, I suppose I believed the rules came down from God. But if that was the case why did my Protestant cousins not have to live by these rules?
Rules for Sunday
One may not go to movies on Sunday. My friend Sharra could go to movies on Sunday. She would ask me to go along. Her Mother would remind her that Mr. Wagner would not allow MaryJo to go to movies on Sundays.
Women and girls must always wear a hat to church.
And speaking of church, it was forbidden to wear white shoes before Memorial Day. Black patent leather would be worn on Easter.
There were so many rules about Sunday that I learned to hate the day.
General Rules
Comic books were forbidden. (So I read my favorite comic “Little Lulu” at Sharra’s and didn’t tell my Father.)
Women, which would include little girls, were not to go into a restaurant in slacks, jeans, or shorts. On road trips, we’d stop at a cafe in the middle of Kansas, and I’d have to put on the skirt with an elastic waist band over my Bermuda shorts. (Shorts shorter than those that came to the knee were not allowed except in gym class at school.)
Skirts and dresses must come several inches below one’s knees. I look at old pictures of me with Sharra or other friends, and there I am looking goofy in my ridiculously long skirt.
Jeans could only be worn while horseback riding or going to the mountains.
One must eat everything on one’s plate (because there are starving children in India — as if these children could eat what I might choose not to eat.) Once I put a small jar with a lid in my pocket. When my Mother wasn’t looking, I scooped up the disgusting canned peas from my plate and put them in the little jar to be thrown out at school.
