Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Support your local library update #2

As in my previous post, I put four books on hold and picked them up this past Friday. I started Princess for a week while I was in the car Friday night but felt a little bored with it. I will finish it but I decided when I got home that night or maybe it was Saturday night when I started reading again, I picked up Flygirl and I just finished it last night. I stayed up until about 4:30 finishing what I had to finish (read about 2 -1/2 hours to finish it). I'm not the fastest reader but I hold my own.

I would recommend this book to all young people thinking about becoming a pilot or even joining the military, especially young minority women. With all the advances we have had over the last 50 or so years in the military equipment and even allowing women to participate as soldiers, pilots and other areas of interest, it is still rough for a woman, no matter where you come from. I remember when women were allowed at West Point (my father retired from the Army there) and the big deal then was how to cut their hair, what style would work best for keeping with the short, Army standards and still look good on women and be acceptable. I was in need of a haircut at the time (my hair was getting very scraggly), so went to the barbershop on base. At the time, Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hammill had been big on TV (not sure if it was about the time of the Olympics or not), so anyway, when I sat down in the chair, the barber asked me if I could be a guinea pig for a free haircut. I agreed and they did one style, felt it wasn't short enough and then decided that would go with something like how Dorothy Hammill wore her hair. I walked out of there a couple of hours later with a "Dorothy Hammill" bob, which was what used at first. Short and cute. Now, some 30 odd years later, the styles for women's hair seem to not be so short but still has to be neat and kept out of the way. Hair can be a killer, especially if you work on machinery or fly planes or just about anything that is done nowadays.

Flygirl is a must read for anyone who wants a glimpse in the life of a young light skinned, black woman trying to make it in a "whites only" organization. Thanks go to Carol Baldwin for using this as a research book for her upcoming novel and recommended it. Check out your copy from the library and read today. See you in the postings - Mrs. E :)

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