Next up, we have my grandmother, Rosanne Skal. Rosanne is my dad’s mother, and she has lived in Butler, PA her whole life. She is a kind, caring woman, who loves her big family more than anything. She likes to attend church and prayer groups, as well as paint, but she says, “only the paint by number.”
Like I said, she grew up in Butler, PA. At the time, this small town seemed to be booming. She said, “Every day we were outside playing with friends. You didn’t even have to call them up and ask to hang out. You just went outside their house and called out their name.” She continued, “The playground was very active. There would always be kids there. Even some teachers would come to do crafts there over the summer.”
Growing up she also worked at her family-owned grocery store. She explained, “It was very different. Nothing was prepackaged like it was in the past. People would come in for a sack of potatoes and she would hand select them and package them herself.”
It was at this grocery store that she then met her husband. She said, “He lived two blocks down from where she lived, and he actually worked at the grocery store too. That is how my parents knew he came from a good family.”
“I got engaged at a pretty early age too. I was still in high school! I was 17 when I got married. And your grandfather was 6 years older than I. Looking back I can see how that is a big gap, but that’s just the way things were. My parents knew he came from a good family, so I think that’s why I was allowed to hang out with him anyway.”
I asked her if everyone got married at that age, and she said sometimes, but not everyone did. “Some of my friends had plans after high school, but honestly I am not too sure because I was with your grandfather too much at that point. If they did go to college, it was definitely not for anything STEM. They would go to become a nurse or secretary.”
I then asked her if anyone tried to push those barriers and go for something other than a nurse or secretary. She explained, “No, not really. We didn’t even really know there were other options because it wasn’t talked about. All the girls had to take home economics classes, and in there they taught us that the most important thing is to get married and have a family. So that’s what most women did.
Later, she did get a job at one of the local furniture galleries. She said, “I worked there for 33 years, and I loved it. I am a people person, so I loved getting to talk to clients and help them decorate and design their spaces. I actually did take a class at the community college back home on interior design. Since I worked there so long, I had to understand floor plans and whatnot.”
I asked my grandma if she had any advice for young girls out there and she said, “Remember everything happens for a reason.”
Hi Carmen! I really liked reading your grandma’s story. I think it’s really interesting how she acknowledges how her upbringing was different than how kids are brought up now and how there weren’t women going into STEM. Even though she had fewer opportunities and preparation for things like college it seems like she is happy with how her life turned out. I’m glad she had a job she liked and everything worked well! Good post!
Your Grandmother seems like a very nice person. I think it is very nice that you decided to write about your grandmother and interview her. I also like how you added that it was very much normalized back then to marry someone a lot older than you. I think this writing piece was very inspiring and nice to read.
Carman, I love this story so much!! I think being a women in society is very hard. We feel the need to be on the same path as everyone around us, but your grandmother did what was right for her. I love that she kind of knew that she was going to be heading in the write direction no matter what. She seems absolutely amazing.