The question about when I was going to join a “Mothers’ Club” was asked to me by my husband about a month after our older daughter was born. I told him that you have to wait to be asked in order to join one of the Mothers’ clubs. This was back in the 1960s when everything in our village was still new to me.
He knew about Mothers’ clubs because his own mother had always gone to Mothers’ Club meetings. It wasn’t long until I was asked to join the Progressive Mothers Club. At that time, there was a total of about 15 members, and they met on the third Thursday evening of each month.
They met in each other’s homes at 8 p.m. and sometimes talked until near midnight. Almost every meeting had a different topic for discussion that had to do with being a mother. It’s also a good way to get to know a lot of other persons in your community.
Over the years that I went to meetings, the club shrunk down to about 10 members. We had officers and everyone took their turn to fill those spots. Sometimes we had guest speakers, but other times the members themselves chose a topic to speak about. We learned a lot from each other, especially about what was going on in our school system.
When we were all beginning to get much older and we didn’t want to meet in the evenings, we decided to go to different restaurants in the area, have lunch, and then just sit and have informal meetings afterwards. Once when we planned on eating at Buns, and members decided to first come up to see what my office was like at the courthouse. That didn’t work out so well because by the time the last ones got to my office, the first ones had already started to eat their lunch at Buns.
Over the years while I was still working at the courthouse, the Mothers’ Club disbanded.
I never did know exactly when because I had been too busy to attend any of that last year’s meetings. But, I am certainly glad that I had those 40 some years to spend time with those wonderful women. Getting to know about their children growing up and being parents themselves would not have happened in any other way. I wish I had made a list of all the things I learned during our times together.
Maybe I could have learned to knit (or was it Crochet?), or how to fix the best stew, or even what cleaner was the best for your good silverware. Maybe if I had taken notes I could fix a good chicken dinner for my husband. (But, he doesn’t like chicken anyway.)
Some of those women’s names were Edith, Margie, Lyn, Mary, Vera, Betty, Evelyn, Twila and Gayle.
Thanks to them for inviting me to join their Progressive Mothers Club back in 1960. Maybe they had something to do with the fact that just last year, I was given a sign that hangs over my desk that says, “I Love That You’re My Mom.”
Kay E. Conklin is a retired Delaware County recorder who served four terms. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a degree in sociology and anthropology.
