Off The Editor’s Desk – 5-29-2019
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Graduation
Graduation season is here and over the course of our lives we not only graduate, but also watch as our kids, grandkids and other family members also walk the walk. Last week we traveled to Little Rock to see our granddaughter, Emma graduate from Little Rock Christian Academy. We were very proud of her as were her other grandparents, Dale and Sue Riba and our families.
Two weeks ago we were in Madison for our other granddaughter, Krisha, who graduated with a Masters in Social Work from the UW and we were very happy to be able to witness that great event. Her hooding program was held the day after the entire graduating class of 2019 had graduated at Camp Randall football field. During the two ceremonies that I attended, and what I heard about the affair at Camp Randall, it appears that the theme of graduation was empowering women.
I don’t have a problem with that, as we should embrace all as equals. But, I noticed in the program at the graduation of Little Rock High School the list of parents’ names listed the female first. As an example: Mary Jones’ parents are Jane and John Jones. Of course it’s hard for this old guy to make a change and I figured it should always be the male’s name first. So much for that thought.
A hundred years ago it appears to me that when a woman married, she lost her first name. As I look back in the files of our newspapers to the early nineteen hundreds and the woman’s name would be printed as Mrs. John Jones, not Mrs. Mary Jones.
Sometime ago I was searching the files of a weekly newspaper at the Historical Society in Madison to find the obituaries of my Great Grandparents, Joel and Lydia DeWitt. There was no listing of her death, but in his obit, it noted that she passed a couple of months before, but made no mention of her first name. As a youngster, I remember that my dad’s sister’s husband always called my mother, Mrs., or sister, never by her first name. Of course he was from the old school.
What does the future have in store for all us boys in the world? Will we lose our first name? Will I become, Mr. Paula DeWitt? Or will my name be lost to antinomy?
But, I guess that I have more important things to do than to worry about my first name and if I am still the head of the table in my (our) house?
Thanks for reading! ~Carlton