2/21/79

I was digging around in an old datebook when I came across the significance of the above date. It was the day that a scared green barely-18-year-old college-dropout-'cause-she-ran-out-of-money walked into a mill with a 99% male to female ratio to begin her career as a papermaker. Okay, okay, there was a little break in there while I went back to school for another year before I became a permanent wearer of steel-toed boots. And the ratio is probably closer to 90% nowadays--we're going to take over the place if they don't watch out, lol! While surfing around, I found an interesting link which includes interviews with women in Maine's paper industry in the 70's. From reading this, it sounds like their experience was pretty much the same as mine as far as working in a "male-dominated industry". In that article, I see mention of one woman being a 'tender at her mill. She's only the third one I've ever heard of during my career-- and now that her mill has closed, and my friend from another mill has moved onto a different job.... wonder if that makes me even rarer? :-)) Funny how after all these years, I'm back once again trying to finish that damn college degree!! Third time lucky, maybe?