Four Women

Halsall 81 Jalaine Halsall Four Women It was the early 70s, the height of the 60s. Wearing jeans that rode our hips and showed our navels, we met at one another's houses, sat crosslegged on the floor in Yoga positions. Lights turned low, burning scented candles while a joint was passed around, we emptied at least one bottle of cheap red wine and sang along with Carly Simon. Between us, we had eleven children, 2.75 each, and were all still married to our first husbands. One of us practiced psychology, one worked for a newspaper, one was a psych major, one a writer. Two of us campaigned for McGovern, one was an early demonstrator for Civil Rights and one lost heart after the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Two blondes, a brunette and a redhead, a Pisces, two Cancers and a Taurus with two of us on the cusp of Gemini, we were striking and articulate, had read The Female Eunuch, subscribed to Ms. To the background of The Moody Blues, one of us asked, "Why am I not sexy?" We all started primal scream therapy, talked about experimenting with open marriage and the first of us got divorced and went to live with her lover. Another followed, giving custody to her husband. There was an abortion and a hysterectomy. Gloria Steinern came to Atlanta the Saturday after Maynard Jackson was elected our first black mayor and one of us marched in the ERA parade and fell in love with the organizer while another travelled, sans husband and children, in Germany. There was another separation and one of us was twice divorced. Somehow, we aU turned forty. This morning's Atlanta Constitution has the news that romance writers are gathered at the Waverly while across town at the Hilton, Geraldine Ferraro 82 the minnesota review opens the National Women's Political Caucus and Steinem's back in Atlanta. Last night on HBO, I watched Simon & Garfunkel reunite in Central Park and I pulled out my old album. AU my photographs show us at the beach. ...