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Charlotte
Charlotte Millet was one of those totally unloveable
women. She was short, stocky, and ding-toed. She
liked to wear funny little clouche hats that prevented
anyone from seeing anything of the top two-thirds
of her face, shapeless dresses all in various shades
of blue, and Red-Cross shoes. Unbecoming, in a word.
She was rude, loud, pushy...oh, all of those things
and probably any more you can think of that fit that
"sort" of female. And, of course, we adored her.
And I think she loved us...when she had time.
When I was growing up I thought she was old. I soon discovered she
was ancient, or rather, timeless. I remember looking
through photograph albums at pictures from the
20's and 30's. She looked exactly the same.
Less gray, I suppose, but in black and white you
couldn't tell anyway. Same look, same clothes, same
face....changeless.
She lived in a venerable old victorian on Main Street.
It was always antique white with tan trim and shutters
for as long as I can remember. When she got so old
she could not live alone she rented rooms to male
students from the college. They took good care of
her...several even tried to teach her to cook. They
gave that up early on and offered to do the cooking
instead.
When she got so old she died, some young
couple bought her house and painted it gray with
black trim....made it look small. And they re-did
the rooms in off white and pastels. And they
auctioned off all the junk furniture and replaced it
with the latest designs. It was really a showcase.
So they tell me.
But when she lived there, it was warm and musty,
with crazy faded wallpaper that tore and cracked in the
corners and antiques and collectables strewn willy-nilly
up stairways and down corridors in the true disregard
that only the original owner can impart to such
treasure. When she lived there, it was a place you could
go.
And Charlotte was a mover and a shaker.
Charlotte started Campfire Girls in the State of
Maine somewhere in the 20's or so....all dates with
Charlotte were "or so"....one never really knew
for sure. Anyway, Campfire Girls. They were an organization
for young to semi-young girls, ages 6 to 18, that
[under the guise of fun-loving Duncanesque romps in the pristene
woodlands] taught youg women to fend for themselves.
They were actually militant "Boy Scouts" in skirts and bloomers.
We learned to swim, boat, tie knots, fry eggs on
rocks, gut animal carcasses, roast birds over
campfires, march, shoot guns, mend sails,...all sorts
of basic survival trivia.
Well, back to Charlotte. She instigated the formation
of this rather subliminally radical organization
in Maine. And Charlotte lived in my town. Every
living, breathing female in my town above the age
of 5 and under 19 was at some point in time in Campfire.
And then there were the die-hards..[you knew I was
one, didn't you?]..they signed on for the full term.
I was a Blue Bird first. [Just don't even think it!
Even at 6, "Blue Bird" was a thorn in my side, but
the 20's were that sort of era, and by the time the
50's were with us they were not going to change the
name for us.] We wore little blue beanies...[you
know, this sounds worse than I remember it...]...and
little white blouses with blue skirts. Oh yes, and
we wore blue scarfs around our necks...with little
blue birds embroidered on them. Blue Birds was the
indoctrination stage. We sang patriotic songs and
made pot-holders and were scanned ever so carefully
for non-acceptable behavior. Only in this club, the
"non's" were the ones that were encouraged.
When we graduated to the second grade, we could become
Campfire Girls. They wore white blouses and navy
skirts and "red" scarfs....[sort of like minature
flag emblems now that I think about it...]
And got to go for overnights and weekends
in the woods and boated and built lean-to's and learned
Indian hand-signs. Scattered amongst the frivolity,
Charlotte tucked little asides of distressing information like
trips to the Maine State Indian
Reservations...preferably in the dead of winter to
be sure we could see them freezing to death...or
concerts by women's rights groups under the guise
of entertainment.
And then, finally, when you reached high school,
you could be in the Horizen Club. Now, Horizen Club
girls not only got to go to places like Montreal
and Quebec and New York City with Charlotte....they
got the run of her house. They got to sit in her
living room and read the faded newspaper clippings
from marches on Washington, and help brew the yearly
Mulled Cider for the Halloween party...[and taste
the "spiked" version that Charlotte put under the
sink]...and try on the fur pieces that Charlotte
kept in her third-floor bedroom closet, but would
not tell where she got, and got to take trips to
the mental hospital to see and hear and feel what
it was like....and you got chaperoned trips to the
health clinic in Portland that no "decent" girl would
ever go to...but then several "decent" girls I knew
got pregnant my senior year....never happened to
a Horizen Club girl...
But most of all, if you made it to Horizen Club,
somewhere along the way you had found the courage
to stand alone and think alone. Charlotte never demanded
adherance...she demanded intelligent thought and
independant action. And she rewarded you for it in
the most glorious ways...trips, bright lights, new
places, strange sights and people...and her, hatted
and clutching a seven pound purse she weilded like
a mace, standing guard.
Sometime around 1979, "or so", Charlotte died. None
of her girls were at her funeral...in fact I guess
as I think about it, there wasn't one. She certainly
would have had no use for it. But, out there in little
towns all over Maine, there are women who when they
meet by chance in their busy lives, grin at each
other and...
"Do you remember the night we set fire to the camp
up on Sebago, and we were all running around in our
nightgowns screaming and out walks Charlotte in this
gawd-awful flannel job and douses the flames with
a lawn hose?....Jesus, she was a mother!...And do
you remember...."
I think that would please her, no end.
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| Hmmm- Good topic- I've been thinking of starting this up for a while now.
The biggest role model in my life is the Athletic Director, and my basketball coach
from college (Rivier College). Joanne Merrill has been at Rivier for about ten years.
Born and raised in Chelmsford, Ma- she got her undergrad at UNH, and is finishing
her master's in physical education administration at Springfield College. If I, at
24, could just be in the shape she is in, at 33 yrs- I would be happy for life!
I have never met a person who genuinely listens as she does. She respects you for
your thoughts, although she may not always agree with them, and she also presents
you with another view, perhaps a side you may not have looked at. I could talk
to her about anything and I knew *implicitly* that it would stay with her, and go
no further, and that, I have found- is a rare quality.
Most importantly I found her to be an individual with high goals and a very strong
will. At Rivier, athletics receives little support from the administration, both
financially and academically. This woman is the head of all athletics, the schedular,
bus driver, bus mechanic (as the means of travel they provided our teams usually belonged
in the junk yard). She teaches all aerobics classes (two or three times a day),
tennis cross-country skiing, hiking, and weight training. She was the basketball
coach (gave this one up so she could see her husband at least once or twice a week),
the trainer, the go-between with students who missed classes becasue of
sports and their professors, and she even lined the fields. On top of all this
she was (and still is) the most active of all the faculty members. She has been
the advisor of the senior class at least 5 years out of her ten years there, she
has been a speaker in many of the woman's studies classes, and she is always on
hand for an event- either academic or athletic. More than that, she has been
an advisor and a friend to many of the students on campus (athletic or not).
During my years in college, I learned so much from her. She taught me to strive
for what I want to be, and to believe in myself. I also have in her, a
valuable and trusted friend.
Terri
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| .3 reformatted for those of us with 80-character-wide terminals
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Note 567.3 Women Role Models 3 of 3
TOOK::TWARREN "Stand in the place where you work..." 35 lines 17-MAY-1989 12:12
-< The woman role model in my life >-
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Hmmm- Good topic- I've been thinking of starting this up for a while
now.
The biggest role model in my life is the Athletic Director, and my
basketball coach from college (Rivier College). Joanne Merrill has
been at Rivier for about ten years. Born and raised in Chelmsford, Ma-
she got her undergrad at UNH, and is finishing her master's in physical
education administration at Springfield College. If I, at 24, could
just be in the shape she is in, at 33 yrs- I would be happy for life!
I have never met a person who genuinely listens as she does. She
respects you for your thoughts, although she may not always agree with
them, and she also presents you with another view, perhaps a side you
may not have looked at. I could talk to her about anything and I knew
*implicitly* that it would stay with her, and go no further, and that,
I have found- is a rare quality.
Most importantly I found her to be an individual with high goals and a
very strong will. At Rivier, athletics receives little support from
the administration, both financially and academically. This woman is
the head of all athletics, the schedular, bus driver, bus mechanic (as
the means of travel they provided our teams usually belonged in the
junk yard). She teaches all aerobics classes (two or three times a
day), tennis cross-country skiing, hiking, and weight training. She
was the basketball coach (gave this one up so she could see her husband
at least once or twice a week), the trainer, the go-between with
students who missed classes becasue of sports and their professors, and
she even lined the fields. On top of all this she was (and still is)
the most active of all the faculty members. She has been the advisor
of the senior class at least 5 years out of her ten years there, she
has been a speaker in many of the woman's studies classes, and she is
always on hand for an event- either academic or athletic. More than
that, she has been an advisor and a friend to many of the students on
campus (athletic or not).
During my years in college, I learned so much from her. She taught me
to strive for what I want to be, and to believe in myself. I also have
in her, a valuable and trusted friend.
Terri
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