In September of 1966 Muriel and Bob and their two younger children moved to Columbus, Georgia. Bob took early retirement from the Royal Canadian Air Force and accepted a job as the seminary teacher and custodian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building in Columbus. Muriel was a smart and talented woman and it was a pretty good bet that she could find a pink-collar job wherever she went.
I was seventeen and in my last year of high school in a new school and a new city. There is no doubt that I was about as self-absorbed as most teenagers are, if not more so. I do remember Muriel/Mom telling us about a language challenge in her new job. She told her boss, "When I answer the telephone, I cannot tell if the caller is saying that she is Mrs or Miss Soandso." Her boss didn't hesitate. He told her to go ahead and just write a note that Ms Soandso had called. In 1966 Ms was not in common use. We all laughed at his answer probably not realizing that shortly his solution would become a banner word of the growing woman's movement.
I don't remember ever wondering how Muriel got to and from work every day. We owned one car. A small VW beetle. Recently my brother John came to visit and he mentioned that Muriel had ridden the bus to work every day. She sat in the front of the bus and was the only white person on the Columbus, Georgia bus.
We had just moved from the Montreal area where traveling by bus was part of every day life for most people. The only practical way to go from The South Shore where we lived to the the island of Montreal was by bus. Today the subway and bus system are crowded with commuters in Montreal. The subway system stops in Longueuil on the south shore of the St Lawrence and from there you hop on the bus to travel further. Big city traffic is so often snarled that public transportation is an asset.
However, in Columbus it apparently was the transportation of only the Black population. I can easily see my 'mum' sitting at the front of the bus being carefully watched by the dark eyes behind her. John commented that she always sat at the front. I assured him that was where any sensible female traveling alone would sit. That is where I sit if I can when I am alone - close to the bus driver. It had nothing to do with being white in the south where Muriel was concerned.
As I learn more about Muriel, my admiration grows. What an incredible woman she was. How fortunate I am to have been her daughter.
I was seventeen and in my last year of high school in a new school and a new city. There is no doubt that I was about as self-absorbed as most teenagers are, if not more so. I do remember Muriel/Mom telling us about a language challenge in her new job. She told her boss, "When I answer the telephone, I cannot tell if the caller is saying that she is Mrs or Miss Soandso." Her boss didn't hesitate. He told her to go ahead and just write a note that Ms Soandso had called. In 1966 Ms was not in common use. We all laughed at his answer probably not realizing that shortly his solution would become a banner word of the growing woman's movement.
I don't remember ever wondering how Muriel got to and from work every day. We owned one car. A small VW beetle. Recently my brother John came to visit and he mentioned that Muriel had ridden the bus to work every day. She sat in the front of the bus and was the only white person on the Columbus, Georgia bus.
We had just moved from the Montreal area where traveling by bus was part of every day life for most people. The only practical way to go from The South Shore where we lived to the the island of Montreal was by bus. Today the subway and bus system are crowded with commuters in Montreal. The subway system stops in Longueuil on the south shore of the St Lawrence and from there you hop on the bus to travel further. Big city traffic is so often snarled that public transportation is an asset.
However, in Columbus it apparently was the transportation of only the Black population. I can easily see my 'mum' sitting at the front of the bus being carefully watched by the dark eyes behind her. John commented that she always sat at the front. I assured him that was where any sensible female traveling alone would sit. That is where I sit if I can when I am alone - close to the bus driver. It had nothing to do with being white in the south where Muriel was concerned.
As I learn more about Muriel, my admiration grows. What an incredible woman she was. How fortunate I am to have been her daughter.
