Had breakfast this morning with my college roommate—we hadn't seen each other since we were 19, when we left for the summer after freshman year & didn't come back, or not for long. We lost touch, as people did in those days. But we refound each other, as people do, and we started right up with just as much laughing & seriousness as ever.
My favorite thing Pam said was telling me about hitchhiking several hundred miles, by herself, to visit some boy whose name she could no longer remember. That seemed like the ultimate '70s sentence, so emblematic of what those times were like, especially for young women. The vast networks that mattered then scattered. The independence & willingness to step out of line. The way we figured out how to have thrilling lives despite the strictures.
My favorite thing Pam said was telling me about hitchhiking several hundred miles, by herself, to visit some boy whose name she could no longer remember. That seemed like the ultimate '70s sentence, so emblematic of what those times were like, especially for young women. The vast networks that mattered then scattered. The independence & willingness to step out of line. The way we figured out how to have thrilling lives despite the strictures.