Here's to the ladies -- the courageous and tough old broads of our town

They were children of the Dirty Thirties, back in those days of our parents and grandparents when they made people tough – at least the survivors were tough. They not only went through the deprivations of hunger and want during that decade, many of them then went off to war as that period ended. Some of them didn’t come back.

But, some did. And what I want to offer is a toast of sorts to the Great Old Broads of this community. There were some great old guys, as well. But, I salute the women if only because they flew in the face of any established female conventions of the day, and had the fortitude to do it and keep on marching to their own respective drummers for decades.

I’m not going to use their names in this, because they are unnecessary, and in the case of one of them, she is still very much with us, and long may she reign. In so saying, I am not about to suggest I agreed with everything they stood for, for that would be a lie. But, I always admired their fortitude and courage of conviction despite the fact they often antagonized the more conventional. They were, in their own way, proto-hippies and later in their lives they garnered a big following of acolytes among that self-chosen dispossessed ilk.

The first one, the one that is still around, has in latter years become the environmental advocate par excellence. You shoot a cougar or bear, and you’re going to hear from her. You try to chop down a forest and shell stand in front of the heavy equipment and defy the less-enlightened to take her out. She has been thrown into court and into jail, but she never wavers in her quest for rectitude as she sees it. She also happens to know what the law can and cannot do, since she has been a legal secretary for much of her adult life.

Aside from her higher-profile enviro conflicts, she was and is death on the tobacco industry and the consumption of their products. Like an AA advocate, she hated smoking, but loved the smokers and wanted them to quit. One of the finest compliments she ever paid to me back in my column writing days was to admonish me for smoking – which I did, quite heavily at the time.

“You have to quit smoking,” she said. “It’ll kill you and I don’t want that to happen. You are one of the good guys, and there are few of you.”

I was touched by her concern, not to mention being seen as a ‘good guy’ in her books.

The next one was her friend. She was a case apart. Fiercely intelligent and a former university academic of high repute, she was also one of the most eccentric and genuinely funniest people I have ever met. She would speak as an advocate for a cause at public meetings and hearings, but her presentations were so droll (without being mean) that she would have her foes peeing themselves in mirth. And, by this rather gentle means she always got her message across.

Unlike her fastidious in personal habits friend, this good lady loved a stiff drink and yes, alas, she smoked like a furnace. She was also a bit in defiance of her left-leaning politics, having once been engaged to the son of a forest company magnate in a relationship that ended tragically with the man’s suicide.

She, however, saw no conflict. She believed what she believed, and nobody was about to convince her she was wrong.

The third to come to mind is actually two people – sisters. Ultimately also accomplished academics both, they were also gobsmacked by the Dirty Thirties and as very young females were in the direst poverty, with no prospects whatsoever. What did they do? They took the Woody Guthrie mode and rode the freight cars back and forth across the country finding work where they could. In that they joined the legions of unfortunate males who were doing the same thing.

Eventually things worked out OK for them and they went on to productive lives once the economy improved. They too were active environmentalists and ultimately left their home as a kind of HQ for latter day enviro groups.

What impresses me about all of the aforementioned women, and there were no doubt many others in communities around the world, is that they subscribed to a belief that they could make a difference, and they did not give a sweet goddamn about how anybody perceived them.

You have to admire them, and I also know that the world is going to miss those people who had that kind of intestinal fortitude in the face of the most ghastly adversity.