With Courage and Common Sense: Memoirs from the Older Women's Legacy Circles

Published by University of Texas Press 2003

With Courage and Common Sense

Memoirs from the Older Women's Legacy Circles

Edited by: Susan Wittig Albert and Dayna Finet
With contributions by: Liz Carpenter

https://doi.org/10.7560/705494

Overview
Contents

About this book

Women who were sixty or older at the turn of the twenty-first century have lived through some of recent history's most momentous moments—and yet these women often believe that their personal lives and stories are insignificant, not worthy of being recorded for future generations. To change that perception and capture some of these life stories before they are lost, the Story Circle Network, a national organization dedicated to helping women write about their lives, developed the Older Women's Legacy (OWL) Circle Memoir Workshops. During the first two years of the project (1998-2000), nearly 500 older women participated in workshops that offered them the opportunity and encouragement to reflect on and create written records of their lives.

With Courage and Common Sense presents an extensive selection of memoirs from the OWL Circle project. Organized thematically, they describe women's experiences of identity, place, work, family life, love and marriage, loss and healing, adventures great and small, major historical events, and legacies to keep and pass along. Taken as a whole, the memoirs chronicle far-reaching changes in the ways that women participated in the world during the twentieth century. They show how women learned to surmount obstacles, to courageously make the most of the opportunities that came their way, and to move quietly and wisely beyond the limits that were imposed upon them.

Author / Editor information

Susan Wittig Albert, Ph.D., founded the Story Circle Network, based in Austin, Texas, in 1997.

Dayna Finet is an independent scholar and writer who co-directed the OWL Circle project.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword Liz Carpenter Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter one Identity I Am Not Always the Same Person Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
Chapter two Home I Was Born in East Texas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
Chapter three Work Making Something That Lasted Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
Chapter four Family Grandmother and the Pirates Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
Chapter five Love ’Til We Meet Again Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Chapter six Loss The Strength to Survive Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Chapter seven Living Fully I Still Had My Two Dollars Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
Chapter eight Witness Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Events Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Chapter nine Legacies “I Wish You Could Have Known My Grandma” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
Biographical Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
About the Story Circle Network Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 222

eBook

Published: January 1, 2010
ISBN: 9780292796553