By Virginia Allen
It was 1976, just two years after President Richard Nixon resigned following the Watergate scandal, and Jimmy Carter “had an appeal … he just felt real,” my mom explained as she sat on our living room couch on a chilly February afternoon.
I had never asked my mom about the first presidential election she voted in, or who she chose to support. Now a staunch conservative, it was interesting to hear my mother explain how the political turmoil of Watergate led her, and millions of other Americans, to support a Democrat peanut farmer from Georgia who had more of a “pastor’s personality” than that of a politician.
Fifty years after my mom cast her first ballot, our nation is celebrating its 250th anniversary, and as we remember the history of our great nation, I think we also have an opportunity to learn the untold stories of our parents and grandparents.
The America my mom grew up in is very different from the nation we live in today, and this in and of itself is unique. For decades, life did not change dramatically from one generation to the next. Families lived and worked on farms together, passing down trades and traditions from one generation to the next. The acceleration of technology and innovation has transformed our culture in good ways, and arguably had some very detrimental effects, but one thing I guarantee you — your life today looks very different from your mother’s life when she was your age.
I had no idea, for example, that my mom was never asked as a child what she wanted to be when she grew up — it simply was not a question most teachers or parents were asking their little girls in the 1950s and 60s.
“The assumption was your identity would come from who you married,” my mom told me, adding, “it did not even occur to me that I would need to think in terms of a career.”
Patt Honor, my mother’s maiden name, went on to have a successful career working on Capitol Hill, becoming a writer and editor for a newspaper in D.C., and later holding a senior communications position for the Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, Virginia. And yes, she did eventually marry my amazing and loving father and start a family of her own, which of course I am forever grateful for!
I have known about her career success all my life, but not about how different her experience as a child was from mine.
As I continued asking questions on that cold Saturday afternoon in my parents’ living room, I received more than answers; I gained perspective not only on my mom’s past, but a greater understanding of how our wonderful nation has changed over the last 70 years.
If you choose to ask your mom, or your grandmother, father, uncle, or another relative the questions below that I asked my mom, you can judge whether the changes in our country have been good or bad, but I am guessing, like me, you will find it’s a bit of both. The real joy is in the knowledge of how our great nation, and the life of your own family member, have evolved over the years.
- What was the first presidential election you voted in? Who did you vote for and why?
- As a child, were you asked what you wanted to be when you grew up? If so, how did you answer?
- Tell me about your first, or your favorite, career job.
- What was your view of the feminist movement as a teen? Has that view changed?
- What is the best trip you ever took within the U.S.?
- If you could go back and tell your 35-year-old self one thing, what would it be?
- What is a question you wish you could ask your mother or grandmother were they still living? Now, how would you answer that question?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Originally from New England, Allen earned a government degree from Regent University. After a year in South Africa as a missionary, she began her media career in Washington, D.C.
