Well, that does it, Leigha. I'll be interviewing you for the book, along with some others here. You are soooo right on, as usual.

Wow Smile. You had both worlds. You were married to a corporate officer and you were one yourself. Geesh Louise.

Dianne, I guess it was another of the weird times in my life when I was doing a lot of very different things all at the same time.
Seems like I either do everything at once or nothing at all. Lately I'm doing the latter. -- And I'm good at it too.
smile

leigha, you have such a nice way of expressing yourself with words. So talented and beautiful.

Smiles, are you feeling any better in regards to energy? I hope you do.

Dianne,I bet this book will benefit many women in the corporate situation. I wish you the best of luck with it.

Dannye, I was born and grew up in Newfoundland, Canada. Everyone in town was caucasion, but there was always someone who found a way to be against another. Religion. Catholics vs Protestants.

When I moved up North (Ontario age 17)I got to learn about racism of color. I couldn't believe how some people think so bad of others because of their skin color. I also found out that many of them thought Newfoundlanders were backward and stupid.

When I visited my new found family in Alabama,(I was 40+) they were so different in their thinking and mine. They made no bones about it. Almost proud of it. It disappointed me to no end. This was MY family and how could they think this way. I love them just the same.

It seems that no matter where we go, there will be people against people.

My Mom taught us to "be good." That meant not being rude or mean and not say bad things to or about ANYONE. She meant business and would not have it any other way. She was the most positive woman I have ever known in my whole entire lifetime.

Sorry for the ramble. Funny how we go from one topic to another isn't it.

chick

I was so turned off by my parent's racism and judgements, I think it caused me to go the other way. It was so ugly. Strangely, if a ethnic family came to their church, they were suddenly okay. Just too weird.

I started working on an intro to this book yesterday. Wrote about 350 words and something I'm noticing is...I'm sarcastic. I can't help but joke about my induction into the Corporate World and The Rules and how many of them I broke without even knowing. How stubborn I was when my husband would try to explain things to me and what a nonconformist I was or still am and something has to make sense to me for me to believe in it.

So, I read it to my husband over the phone last night and he stopped me in the middle and said, "Dianne, this is really good." You have to realize that he doesn't usually express himself in this way and especially about my writing. I asked him if it seemed more interesting because I was writing about him and he said no, it flowed smoothly and he really liked it.

Something funny: In writing this with my friend, we're both breaking a Corporate Rule. So, I'm writing about them and breaking them at the same time.

Dianne,

At the time I was up there, a lot of the women in the group were seasoned corporate wives who had followed their husbands from one assignment to another. There are a huge number of corporate headquarters in the Twin Cities, which probably explains it. The majority of these women were wives of highly placed executives. For them, going to lunch meant forking out $100 before the meal was over. Once or twice was OK, but as a regular expenditure, it was a little over my budget.
I found that some of them were down-to-earth and others were caught up in their "position" (?)


When I lived in MN, the moment I opened my mouth and the Southern accent emerged, you could actually see the disdain on a person's face. I asked for the location of an item in the grocery store in Wayzata, and the clerk started talking to me very slowly and enunciating his words carefully as if he thought I was an idiot.

Where I live now, I have had some interesting experiences. One woman that I didn't know except to greet when I saw her was eavesdropping on my conversation with my mother who was visiting. I told her that I had just been selected for the Marquis' Who's Who in American Women.
The woman interrupted our conversation without thinking and said, "They chose you?"
I looked at her and said, "And why not?" Since she didn't know anything about me, I thought her answer would be interesting.
She said, "Well, I thought that was for well-educated professional women."
Not wanting to make it easy at the time, I said, "And so....?"
She said, "Ummmm...Well, I can tell you're from the South. So I just thought...."
I just said, "Maybe you need to rethink your prejudices" and walked away.

I'm not nursing anger about the way people act. It just saddens me whenever I am faced with such prejudice, no matter who it is directed toward. Being from the South just gives me many opportunities to dis-identify from the negative emotions that can accompany such interactions. I should probably count my blessings!

Here's a story for you. At one time I worked with my husband in his optometric office.

One of the local weathermen arrived for his appointment. He had to wait. Imagine that!

He treated me like dirt when he inquired about not having been seen. I was my sweet self, apologized, and explained the delay. He hemmed and hawed, giving the women employees dirty looks of exasperation and disgust.

Hubby comes out while the guy was stammering around the opticianry. Hubby introduces me as his wife...and he changed his tune immediately! He was full of smiles and pleasantries. Oh, now that he knows I'm the doctor's wife he's going to treat me differently.

Who cares if he's a weatherman, and who cares if my husband is an eye doctor. Sometimes people make me crazy!

FYI: I won't say who it was for the locals, but I will say it wasn't Bob Turk. I love Channel 13!

Dianne, while researching for you book you may want to read, "Powerful Mate Syndrome"

Angela Wilder sent me a copy, or her publicist did, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

If you order it through Amazon on my site I might make two cents. HA!

Never heard of it but I would love to read it. Thanks.

Dotsie,
Marty Bass I bet. My daughter said he won't give you the time of day . He is rude .

It is funny, isn't it? I remember how people treated me back when I was a lifeguard at a country club before and after they found out, either that my parents also belonged to a country club or that I was going to go to a college that had snob appeal. I ended up working in a law firm years later for one of the members who treated me with dignity before he ever knew if it would do him any good, but never forgot the valuable lessons I learned from that experience. P.S. It's terrible, but Marty Bass ran through my mind as well.