There were lots of social/growing up lessons too. For one, I was shocked by the open prejudice. People frequently said awful things that had me spinning my head around to see if anyone overheard them. I was involved in the Employee Club planning for the annual Christmas party and we were surveying employees about things like the venue and music. I actually had several white people tell me that there should not be a band to dance to – and the reason was because they were afraid that black men would ask their wives to dance! I couldn’t believe it. In the end, there was a private, rocking after-party to the company party which all non-prejudiced persons could attend. Another unexpected lesson came with being a woman in a man’s world. Some married guy started telling people in the plant that I had slept with him! I just remember thinking, ‘why would a married guy do that?’. But I had to figure out how to deal with it. It’s not like you can prove a thing didn’t happen. In the end, I decided to ignore the gossip and let people conclude what they will – a choice to let my character speak for itself. Compared to his general character, I ‘won’ public opinion without saying a word.
There are so many stories from those plant days… I’ll save some of them for future blogs!