women's history: take 1

"I get it! March is Women's History Month and you went to a movie about some famous woman. Am I correct?"

You're half-right. Yes, it is WHM! I hadn't realized that's such a recent thing. I was almost 30 when it came into existence. I guess that's one thing that Ronald Reagan did that was good.

"And the thing I'm wrong about?"

I went to a semi-biographical play, over at SavRepTh, not a movie. It was based on the real story of Jennifer Blackmer's mother, who was a stenographer called into service in 1973 to record the debriefings of returning POWs from Vietnam. She was 22 years old.

"1973... wasn't that Operation Homecoming? I was 15 years old and had just started 10th grade at Jenkins High School. So, that makes her just 7 years older than me."

Thereabouts. 'Esther' had already spent some time in the secretarial pool there at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base before she landed that job. She had caught the eye of a 34-year-old officer there, and, to keep her from taking a job in Vietnam, he got her that position to keep her handy. The play spent a bit of time on the courtship of 'Andy' with her. It even covered a fancy dance he took her to, with the focus on the black-tipped, high-heeled, Chanel shoes her mother sent for her to wear!

"I know that was a very special moment! 'Esther' thought she'd be following in her mom's footsteps and become a military wife, too."

Yes, she did, even though the courtship was moving slowly, with 'Andy' truly being an officer and a gentleman and not pressuring the virgin into sex. Later, though, when she came to him distraught over a debriefing she'd heard, he wasn't above plying her with alcohol. Don't get the wrong impression, though. She had to tell him that she was ready to have sex. So, this wasn't a forced situation.

"Well, that's to his favor then. Did he have her move in?"

I don't recall that ever happening. You see, the POW she'd been so upset about? His name was 'Daniel Case'. He turned up outside her apartment four days after his debriefing and she invited him in for some food. They got to talking and realized they had a lot in common with languages. With her it was Plover, the sound-based one used by stenographers to operate the blank black paddles of the little steno machine. For him, it was all wrapped in the poems of e.e. cummings, the man who used his own grammar and punctuation rules. In any case, she and he ended up together in her bed, having a lost night, with him gone in the morning.

"Say what? Just four days after she and the officer had sex?"

Yep. But what she and 'Daniel' had was clearly love-making, to hear her talk. In any case, she ended up pregnant with the daughter who wrote her story. However, before 'Esther' knew that had happened, she'd been called in for interrogation. Why? 'Daniel' had been AWOL when he showed up to her place and someone had seen him in the area. So the military wanted to know why he went to see her and what did they do and what did he say??? It was quite a harrowing thing for the young woman.

"Yes, I'm sure it was. Then she found out she was pregnant and 'Andy' thought he had to marry her, but she went back to her parent's house instead. I'm sure the truth was this: she wanted to believe the baby was the product of her time with 'Daniel'. Perhaps that was even the case. I'd like to think it was."

I agree. I After the play, Carolyn Cook came out to talk with those of us who wanted to know more about the character she portrayed. That's her, on the right, next to Natasha, the producer of this traveling show. You know the most interesting tidbit for me?

"What was that, dear?"

It was when she was asked something about the script. She said it was 44 pages with 168 light cues. Can you believe that??? Wow. 168 light cues!!!

"Oh, I get it. You've run lights for A.C.T.O.R. and the Armstrong Masquers, so you have personal experience with that sort of thing."

That's right! It came up because she was talking about the use of triangles and diamonds in the light patterns on the floor. Those were silent visual cues to move her to where she needed to be and to keep her on track with the story. Just by use of light cues! There were some sound effects, too, to accentuate what was going on. But the light operator - and that would be Justin Bishop - was the one who helped keep her on target. Well, I'm assuming it was Justin. The "program" was a QR code that my reader can't transcribe. I'm hoping Jenn Bishop will send me the URL.

"Was this the play you mentioned a week ago? The one you already bought a ticket for?"

Yes, it is. I'd been drawn in by its sponsorship by the foundation for Abbie DeLoach, one of the young nurses killed in the car wreck in 2015. She was only 21. I'd said at the time that her political uncle would cause a change, and I was right. I guess I have her to thank for the merger of Armstrong with Georgia Southern that led to my retirement in 2018.

"That's all true. Good thing you bought your ticket ahead, as this was a sold-out show. The Vintage Events Center at least has free parking! You know, you still haven't mentioned the name of the play. You're wanting to include the poem on which it's based, don't you? Well, now's the time!"

Here it is!

i carry your heart with me   

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
               i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)