From Mrs. Vera Lee Wright’s first day to her last, she led a meritorious and adventuresome life. As a woman of great poise and elegance, Wright stood out like a white stallion in an desolate field. However, she was not always such a proper lady. She made mistakes, bit the dust, and stumbled over her own feet. These events shaped her into a wise and lovely woman, but her wild spirit remained. Although we never met, her stories were too exciting to be dismissed, and so they continued to be passed down from to generation to generation, until finally reaching me. Vera was born in the small town of Independence, Virginia on May 17, 1898, in the notable setting of her parents’ bath tub. A few years earlier in 1894, her brother Robert L. Wright had …show more content…
His hair glistened black in the shining sun, eyes sparkled to Pilot Mountain, and height soared with the birds at 6 feet 5 inches. Joshua was indeed qualified as beautiful, but was even more so qualified as dangerous. Considered a farm boy, Joshua enjoyed anything with a little dirt and thrill attached to it. Vera found herself infatuated with him and he with her. She was also quite the catch. Vera’s long, flowing, chestnut brown hair had him wrapped up all the way to her plump pink lips and big, bright emerald eyes. Vera’s father was a farmer as well and he influenced Vera to never be scared of the dirty work. Joshua found this quality to be his favorite of Vera. Fergil was not a fan of Joshua Taylor, but Vera disregarded his opinions and followed her stubborn heart. Every day, at Independence High, after school they would take the long way home through town to spend every last second together, until the next day. Joshua would wait for Vera at the trophy case beside the office doors and walk her from there to her home three miles down the road at Edgewood Drive. This love interest lasted from the beginning of Vera’s 11th year of school up until the very end of her 12th grade summer. That Fall she began college at Marymount University where a new adventure took
High school sophomore, Samantha Baker woke up on the morning of her sixteenth birthday, hoping for an overnight transformation. While on the phone with her best friend, she stares at herself in the mirror, praying she had grown a few inches and a set of boobs. Much to avail, she has not and her day goes on just like every other one. She has the added pressure of being a bridesmaid for her older sister Ginny’s wedding, the next day. After being felt up by Grandmother Baker, Samantha deals with the ridicule and torment of her annoying little brother and takes the bus to school. During her study hall class she takes a silly quiz another friend had given her. The quiz ends up in the hands of her crush, Jake Ryan! The anxiety sets in.
Each of these letters provides details about the lives of middle-class married African American women living in the Upper South in the early twentieth century. By looking at these documents along with the finding aids that explain the collections they are a part of one could get a good sense of what life was like for a fictional woman of similar circumstances.
Daisy Thomas Livingston and Dora Strong Dennis both experienced different and similar experiences during the early and mid-1900’s.
...g however, there have been a few questions that have begun to surface in my mind. Why do some things in our lives cause us stress, something as simple as looking in the mirror too much? Why are we islands, and why shouldn’t we strive to be with people all the time? With these questions and the different thoughts that come alive within me, I begin to have a clearer understanding of myself, and what I believe. Through this book, I have been provoked to thought; to a consciousness I have never felt before. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, through her eloquent and poetic style, has brought me to enjoy meditating on the issues in my life. She has brought an inner peace to my life that I have never felt. It has allowed me to go on a vacation to the sea. It has allowed me to absorb the timeless lessons she offered. I hope you choose to go along on the journey with her too.
As the sun rises high into the midday summer sky, Bruce Carroll begins to pack his bag for the 6 months out in the wilderness. He has decided to make the 6-month trek along the Appalachian Trail. This choice has been hard on Bruce because he cannot bear staying away from his family. His daughter Lillian, is a blonde four year old who always has her pink blanket. The mother of Lillian is a dark-haired beauty. Everyday Bruce wakes up, he compares her to a super model.
Margaret had huge dreams of one day becoming a writer, but those dreams were put on hold when her father suddenly passed away in 1835. At this time, her mother was also sick and it became her responsibility to take care of her family’s finances. There were not many job opportunities available to women during this time, she found a teaching job and accepted the position. She first began teaching at Bronson Alcott’s Temple School in Boston and taught there until she went on to teach at the well-kn...
Lydia Marie Child was born on February 11, 1802 and died on October 20, 1880. During her life she wrote in many forms and on various topics, but Lydia was more than just a writer. She wrote short stories, biographies, science fiction, serialized fiction, children’s literature, historical novels and antislavery literature (Karcher 6). She was also a journalist and a feminist, and wrote about the American Revolution and Native Americans. She helped Harriot Jacobson escape slavery, encouraged reform and was an abolitionist. But, before she could help others, Lydia had to fight for her own right to advance and succeed. Lydia was born in Medford, Massachusetts, as the sixth and youngest child of Convers and Susannah Francis. Susannah died when Lydia was twelve, and she was sent to live with a married sister until the age of nineteen. Although Mr. Francis encouraged the intellectual advancement of his sons, he discouraged his daughter, Lydia, from her fondness for books (Myerson 5). Lydia continued to read and learn, without her father’s encouragement or help, an...
Dorothy Height was born on March 24, 1912, in Richmond, Virginia. She grew up with a mother (Fannie Burroughs Height), a father (James Edward Height), and a sister (Anthanette Aldridge). Her father was a building contractor while her mother was a nurse both working to support the family. When Dorothy was 5 years old she moved to Rankin, Pennsylvania.
Vera Ellen Wang was born on June 27 1949 and raised in New York, New York. Her parents Florence Wu and Cheng Chin Wang were born in China and moved to the United States in the mid 1940s. Her mother, Florence Wu, worked as a translator for the United Nations. When her father owed a medical company. Vera’s younger brother Kenneth Wang, who is a bussiness man and deputy leader of the ACT New Zealand party.
Mom and Dad stayed in the room with the upstairs fireplace and a covered porch facing Alexandria Bay, but Mom’s true niche was the front porch. I wonder now if a plaque should be placed there in her memory. She was content to sit and read for hours, all the while keeping track of who was coming or going and in which direction.
Despite the packing boxes and the moving truck parked on her street, Riley Matthews could not accept the fact that she was moving to Austin, Texas. She had only ever known New York City as home. Her two best friends, Maya Hart and Farkle Minkus, lived and conquered the world with her since the first grade. The trio was inseparable. What would she do without them? Her mom promised her that she would make new friends in Texas, but Riley couldn’t trust that. She would be the weird new girl from a state up north. Moving to Texas would be the end of
At the beginning of the novel, Taylor is intensely independent. She stands apart from the other high school girls at Pittman County. She is the only girl not wearing “beige or pink Bobbie Brooks matching sweater-and-skirt outfits” (5). She is determined to avoid teenage pregnancy, which is so common in her high school. She is the only girl brave enough to ask the science teacher for a job. Taylor believes that she can survive on her own. She finds herself a rickety car. It is a ’55 Volkswagen bug “with no windows to speak of, and no seat and no starter” (11-12). She learns how to push start it all by herself. Her mother helps her to be independent and to conquer her fears. Mrs. Greer lets the air out of one of the tires and also the spare, forcing Taylor to pump the tire herself despite her fear of exploding tires. Taylor learns that “nobody was goi...
Mara, the main character, is a perfectionist. She has straight-As, is in National Honors Society, and is a future Yale student. She is competing with her only ex-boyfriend for the Valedictorian. Her life changes completely when her niece V, who is only a year younger than her, comes to live with Mara. V is a slutty, druggie that has an attitude. This story takes the reader on an adventure of two complete opposite girls who have to learn to love each other. Mara eventually learns that she cannot control everything and has to take life as it comes.
Carrie Watts was a countrywoman at heart. She loved the childhood home where she grew up and never liked the life of the city she was forced to live. She did not hide the fact that she was miserable living with her daughter-in-law. She appeared to be long suffering, a martyr, and given to fits and crying (Ebert, 1986). When given the right timing and occasion, she would open up like a flower, blooming for the first time. She found solace remembering her past life and held a candle to the time when she would go back to
Solomon, Barbara H., ed. Rediscoveries: American Short Stories by Women, 1832-1916. New York: Penguin Group, 1994.