The History Major

I was a history major at the University of Oregon. When I graduated, applicable careers for a history major were limited unless you taught the subject, which I did at the high school level for six years. Then, after divorcing my first husband, I moved to the East Coast and spent the rest of my Jill-of-all-trades career hopping from job to job, looking for, but never finding, work that held my interest longer than six or seven years. None of the positions I held were remoted related to my major.

Then, I retired. Suddenly I had time to write something other than business letters, reports, or training manuals. I could set my own deadlines, choose topics limited solely by my imagination, and though I had abandoned my major for 35 years, it crept into much of what I wrote.

The story in my first novel, Brute Heart, takes place in the 1970’s and 80’s. In it, I expose the challenges of a young woman trying to gain acceptance as a veterinarian in agrarian communities unaccustomed to females in that profession. I also describe the highly complicated regimen imposed on people during the early years of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act.

Never Done, my second novel, is set in Colorado from 1885 to 1919. Based on the life of my great-grandmother, the story is about a woman's perseverance as she raises a family and moves from cattle country to mining towns, witnessing industrialization, World War I, and the Spanish flu epidemic.

“A nation that forgets its past has no future,” said Winston Churchill. I believe this blindness to the lessons of history is taking place in the United States right now. Call me a paranoid geezer, but I would describe most Americans as complacent, almost as ignorant of the real world as they were prior to World War I, especially when it comes to Russia, North Korea and China. Not having a strong President adds to the danger of being drawn into another large-scale war.

American parents are also betraying an entire generation by turning their backs on even the mildest version of “spare the rod, spoil the child,” mollycoddling too many of today’s children, failing to prepare them for the realities of life. I blame this on the alarming increase our country is experiencing in drug use and suicides among young people.

I can’t pin a rose on me, however, since I rarely tackle contemporary issues in my writing. Instead, I hunker down in my comfort zone which is writing about my own history or that which preceded me. Those years definitely weren’t problem-free, but at least most people who lived them were better prepared to deal with poverty, disease, war, and natural disasters.