Chapter 1 A Sign of the Times

April 4, 1968, Marie stalked out of Silas’ office. They argued about her work. Or, in her opinion, the lack thereof. She sat down and lit a cigarette, huffing angrily. The others in the office knew better than to say anything. They probably heard it all, anyway. She would have to re-type her column. It meant she would stay late again. Marie didn’t give a Willy ding-dong if Mrs. Gomez’s dog won best in show at the local dog show. Silas had been giving her crap stories lately, and she wasn’t sure why.

Well, that wasn’t precisely true. Marie was a woman working in a man’s field, but that was no reason to give her such banal work when she had previously worked on hard-hitting investigative journalism. She was the only woman working in the office except for the receptionist, that seemed to change yearly. Everyone was doing their usual stories, and she had been shafted, reduced to a gossip column. Her story was handed over to someone else again—a man. Marie was dying to bite into some genuine news again.

Leaving the completed column for tomorrow in Silas’s office, she started for home. Marie walked to work most days, as gasoline was costly. She stopped at the grocers for some milk and bread. Marie sighed as she unlocked the door and put up the groceries. At 31 years old, her parents referred to her as the spinster daughter, as was relayed by her sister. Her sister was married with three children. She smiled at the thought. Her nieces and nephews were adorable, and she loved them. However, Marie didn’t feel the desire to have children. The smile was chased from her face, knowing her parents would never come to terms with the life she had chosen. It was moot anyway, as she no longer spoke to them. They had been estranged for years now.

Marie wanted a career, and most men were put off by it. Jobs were only for college girls trying to get a husband. She remembered her journalism professor telling her that. Women looked at her lack of a husband and were either envious of her freedom or judgmental as she wasn’t following society’s norms. Men assumed she was desperate or lesbian. It seemed like those were the only two choices in this black-and-white world. The Midwest was slow when it came to changing attitudes. What she needed was a plan. Staying with the status quo wasn’t getting her anywhere.

These thoughts sparked something in her. Marie sat down at her typewriter. She would write a column about these fallacies and look for another place of employment. Marie knew if she presented an article like this, there was a good chance of being trashed because of conservative attitudes. Silas… She sighed again. At one time, she was madly in love with him. But he was just like everyone else. He wanted to be the man that went off to work while she stayed home to mind the house and raise the children as a woman should. It made some women like her sister happy, but that life wasn’t for her. Marie craved to be part of something more than adding humans to society. She needed to find a place where she felt her talents would be of use. Frankly, if the Sun-Gazette didn’t want her, she would go elsewhere. Just because the Gazette was the largest and most influential paper didn’t mean it was the only one. There were plenty of other newspapers.

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