When I was a little girl growing up in the 1940s, we didn’t have much in the way of material things.The Great Depression had hit just about everyone, and we were just climbing out of it. My dad had ajob at a factory, and mom stayed at home with the kids. I got a new outfit once a year, and that wasonly because Mom was pretty good with the sewing machine. Good thing, too, because when WorldWar II came, mom got a job sewing uniforms for the soldiers. The extra money helped, and by thetime I was in my teens in the late 1950s we had enough to get one of those fancy new television sets.It was black and white and only got three channels, but we were glued to it.I decided around that time that I didn’t want to work in a factory or sew like my momhad. I wanted to go to college. A girl aspiring to a career at that time raised someeyebrows. Worse still, I wanted to be a lawyer. Though others scoffed, myparents told me that they would support me in any way they could.Fortunately, I worked hard at school and got a scholarship. It wasn’t easy, buta few years later I was a lawyer.At first I was a little overwhelmed. But in the late ‘60s I knew I could use myeducation and spirit to help our nation. I took a job working againstdiscrimination as a civil rights attorney. That’s where I met your Grandpa. Hewas not only handsome but believed in the same things I did and still do—equality and justice. When your mom came along, I took a year off but wentright back to work. We were able to afford a color TV and, like me, your momwas glued to it. She had an intense interest not in the programs, but how thething worked. I guess I knew from the time she was watching “Sesame Street”that she would also take a path that was not normally taken by women. Shebecame an electrician.So, Valeen, I wonder what’s left for you to try that is uncharted territory for women. After all, it seems to run in our family