Halloween is for dreamers and doers. People dress up as the people they dream of being and dream of doing. That sounded better in my head.
It’s my favorite. I love dressing up. This year I went as . . . well . . . a figure (a type, a kind) from history, not a person from history, but a figure from history.
This year I went as a turn of the century suffragette.
Two people knew the word.
One person thought I was a cowboy. Alcohol was NOT being served at the party I attended.
Most people, who guessed close, knew that I had something to do with Mary Poppins.
One individual thought my sash read “Yotes” not “Votes.”
I confess that the iron-on V looks a lot like the iron-on Y.
One gentleman thought that my sash was a plea to elect a woman for president and was a little bit hostile about it. It got me to thinking about the importance of history and prepositions and the history of prepositions.
My sash read: Votes FOR Women. (It was once illegal in this country for women to cast a ballot. Suffrage is the right to vote. Thus suffragettes.)
It did not read: Vote FOR A Woman.
Or: Vote OF Women.
Or: Vote THROUGH Women.
Or: Vote ABOUT Women.
Or: Vote UP Women.
It said: [V]OTES FOR WOMEN.
Nothing wrong with that. Right?
Like the song says, “Our daughter’s daughters will adore us, as we sing in grateful chorus, ‘Well done! Well done! Sister Suffragettes!”
Mostly, I went as an indictment of the public school system! And that’s the scariest monster of them all.
Linda (One Women, One Vote) Zern
