KW and the Slow-Pokes

One thing you can say for her. The Kansas Woman often growls about drivers who take too much time to cover a mile. A large part of our local travel is on a two lane road that converts to a divided, four- lane highway. There are three opportunities to pass a slow driver on the two-lane section of about a halfdozen miles.

When we get behind a slow-poke, she can't wait to pass and glare at the poor soul.

“I knew it!” she'll spout, talking to the passenger window, “A ole lady. She ought to be at home.”

This would be an opportunity to point out that the poor ole thing behind the wheel of the Buick is likely younger than she. It wouldn't be helpful.

To her credit, the KW learned to drive when there were no speed limits in Kansas.

That's right! No speed limits.

“Cars didn't go as fast as they do now, and people knew better.”

She has gotten a speeding ticket, once that she admits, and that was over a decade ago. She never mentioned it. It doesn't count.

The Kansas Woman is not patient with people who ought to “know better.”

“Look at her! She walks like a cowboy!”

The KW believes that women should walk with their knees touching and sit the same way.

She thinks schools should teach young women how to walk and sit like they're supposed to.

When she sees a man with his cuffs around his ankles, she laments that his wife let him out of the house looking “that way.”

It's worse when the cuffs are too high.

It's always “her” fault.

There is no progress to be made in pointing out that men can learn to hem their own pants.

She says that young women (today) don't know anything. That's the point right there, a prejudice against what she calls “helpless women.”

I asked her to define her term. “They depend upon a man to do everything. They can't do anything for themselves.”

Just about every useful thing she knows she learned in her “4-H” club, “Farmington 4-H Club” that met in the Mount Pleasant school house. It was chartered in July of 1932 and is still going.

She is a big believer in 4-H and is proud of her old club.

Today, there are eight busy 4-H clubs in Washington County turning out boys and girls who “know something.”

joenphillips@yahoo.com