Twomims

by Guest Blogger, Barb Adams

Guru of Steve Adams Studio and author of Notes from the W.G.

Last day of summer.  Everyone grab your kaleidoscope and shake.

You’re watching Mad Men, right?  The character I relate to the most is Sally, the Drapers’ ten year old daughter.  That was my perspective in the late fifties, early sixties.  Thankfully, my mom was a lot warmer than Betty.  As a ten-year-old, I really thought my options for a career were nurse, teacher or secretary.  My artistic bent lent itself to drawing on reams and reams of outdated stationery that my dad brought home from the office, but I wasn’t thinking “how can I make a living doing this?”

In the late sixties, everything went boingo.  Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, the pill, and Title IX meant that the world was busted wide open for me and women coming after.  Coming from a family that had attorneys going back three generations, I stepped in line and went to law school.

A career switch to managing a photo studio after having kids left me striking that balance between work and family, which is a never-ending walk on the tight rope.  And the funny part is, just when you think “OK – the kids are launched” they come boomeranging back into the picture, having lost the roommate in the apartment, or signing on for grad school.  And then your parents, the ones who were the rock during all those early years, are slowly but surely requiring a lot of time, attention and care.

So there you find yourself on the bridge, looking back at all the frantic early years of building a business, scheduling orthodontia appointments, figuring out the craft project for the Brownie troop, soliciting ads for the school Buzz Book, etc. and looking forward to more of the same, except there’s been a twist to the kaleidoscope of your life and it all looks just a little bit different.  Same colors but different shapes.

Enjoy every moment, ladies, because it all starts whizzing by at warp speed the farther down the road you get.

Tags: back to school, Kids, last day of summer, summer