the time I entered college in 1974, radical changes in women's viewpoints had taken place through the turbulent 60's and the Vietnam War. I was of a singular mindset. I would work as hard as I could to get a degree because I wanted to ensure that I could take care of myself. My father had not believed I should attend college at all, so there was no financial backing coming from that arena – not that there could have been much anyway. My father was an acknowledged alcoholic who struggled throughout his adult life. Many of his demons were based in his horrid memories of a two-year stint in the army, much of it spent in Korea during the Korean War. It is amazing to me howbehind society a good fifty years – that's something that I learned in college. For example, while televisions became acceptable in every home in the 1950's, we didn't really even allow them in the classroom until the 1990's – nearly fifty years later.

And so it's no wonder that the lessons that Julia Roberts' character was trying to impart in 1953 didn't really take effect in the minds of women until 2003. I was just a middle man – er, woman.

One of my closest friends from High school attended Wellesley in the 1980's. She was preceded by two of her older sisters. I had the opportunity to visit her there a couple of times, and she came to see me once at my small college in Chicago.

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