Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler with @womensmemoir60s

I am very pleased to participate in this Wow! Women on Writing Blog Tour for the Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the ’60s and 70’s anthology with a guest post by Merimee Moffit. Merimee is the Winner, First Honorable Mention, Poetry.

She will discuss how what we learned in the ’60s and ’70s is important for women today.

Welcome, Merimee!

“How What We Learned in the ‘60s and ‘70s is Important to Women Today?”

The anthology, Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the ‘60s & ‘70s, encourages younger women who are now the age we were back in the Times to not stop, not give up, to listen to their own inner voice, and if need be, to shout it out!

Many of the writers tell about shedding the “Shoulds” they had been burdened with and moving into a new way of prioritizing their own needs.

The story, “Proud Spinster,” reveals the barriers to home-owning and child-bearing for a single woman, but Patricia Vestal, the author, proudly outlines her successes while going it solo.

In my poem, “Before the Summer of Love,” I write about an almost romance as a potential career move, simultaneously poking fun at the sanctity of a marriage I’d never witnessed. I, as the voice in the poem, had foregone many “Shoulds” to revel in the bliss of my lover’s body and to twine with him in our meandering search. I write about a “dizzying search for God,” but I couldn’t have defined it that way then.

The book gives evidence that as we live our lives honestly, not necessarily guided by “Shoulds,” but by our own integrity, we don’t know what lies ahead. Each story and poem focuses on a pivotal moment that contained the seed of a strong inner voice, a new way.

“Dispatches from the Heartland” shocks us when a father accuses his daughter of destroying his marriage and influencing his wife, violently attempting to re-impose his “Shoulds” upon her. Dorothy Alexander, the author, wanted to become a lawyer and her father felt threatened. This scenario is less and less frequent due to the brave women whose stories tell of facing down such confrontations.

The drug stories, “Tripping on High” and “Altamont,” give us a frightening truth with a wake-up call to young women today. Drug experiences were part of the Times; these two written by Venus Ann Maher and Amber Lea Starfire remind women that the survivors of the Times had to stand up for their right to be sober, had to fight the short-term “Should” about being stoned forever.

The writing in the anthology stresses the importance of women knowing that their own intuition is the healthiest guideline, not the “Shoulds” imposed generically upon a generation or a gender. No, you don’t have to be married, nor do you need to be the wildest at the party, nor do you have to follow a powerful guru.  Yes, rights can be removed and yes, you may, like your mothers and grandmothers, have to fight, even for rights you already have and may be taking for granted.

You are worth fighting for, these writers say, and your beliefs and efforts will bear fruit. Women’s history is just beginning to be scribed, valued, and studied.

Young women of today are living tomorrow’s history. It is up to each woman to add her mark, to tell her story, paint her visions, dance her dance. 

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Thank you Merimee for capturing the essence of the stories in the anthology. My favorite line is “you are worth fighting for and your beliefs and efforts will bear fruit.” May the lessons of the ’60s and ’70s as relayed through your stories serve to guide young women today.

Author’s Bio:

Merimee Moffitt arrived in New Mexico in a shiny green Chrysler from Portland in 1970 and fell in love with the land, sun, culture—everything northern New Mexico. She stayed to raise her four children, has four grandkids now, a husband, and two dogs. She is semi-retired and currently co-hosts the only prose open mic in Albuquerque, Duke City Dime Stories (dimestories.org). She performs her poems and teaches workshops and classes in the community. Her poetry appears often in the fabulous reviews and journals in New Mexico such as Malpais Review, Mas Tequila Review, Adobe Walls, and the Santa Fe Literary Review. She received First Honorable Mention in the Times They Were A Changing anthology for her poem “Before the Summer of Love.” She has published three chapbooks and her first book, a collection of poems, Making Little Edens, is available at your favorite bookseller and on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Making-Little-Edens-Merimée-Moffitt/dp/1492881589/.

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Just in time for the holidays,  anthology editors Linda Joy Myers, Kate Farrell and Amber Lea Starfire launch their anthology Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the ’60s and ’70s. The book is the perfect gift for opening discussions with friends and family members and illustrating what a powerful time the ’60s and ’70s truly were.

Anthology Synopsis:

Forty-eight powerful stories and poems etch in vivid detail breakthrough moments experienced by women during the life-changing era that was the ’60s and ’70s. These women rode the sexual revolution with newfound freedom, struggled for identity in divorce courts and boardrooms, and took political action in street marches. They pushed through the boundaries, trampled the taboos, and felt the pain and joy of new experiences.

And finally, here, they tell it like it was.

Through this collection of women’s stories, we celebrate the women of the ’60s and ’70s and the importance of their legacy.

Paperback: 354 pages

Publisher: She Writes Press (Sept. 8, 2013)

ISBN-10: 1938314042

ISBN-13: 978-1938314049

Times They Were A’Changing: Women Remember the ‘60s & ‘70s is available in print and as an e-book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and She Writes Press and Indie Bound.

Find out more about the book online:

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TimesTheyWereAChanging

Times They Were A’Changing blog: http://www.timestheywereachanging.com

Twitter: @womensmemoir60s

About the Editors:

Linda Joy Myers is president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, and the author of four books: Don’t Call Me Mother—A Daughter’s Journey from Abandonment to Forgiveness, The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story, and a workbook The Journey of Memoir: The Three Stages of Memoir Writing. Her book Becoming Whole—Writing Your Healing Story was a finalist in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award. A speaker and award-winning author, she co-teaches the program Write Your Memoir in Six Months, and offers editing, coaching, and mentoring for memoir, nonfiction, and fiction. www.namw.org. Visit her blog at http://memoriesandmemoirs.com.

Kate Farrell earned a M.A. from UC Berkeley; taught language arts in high schools, colleges, and universities; founded the Word Weaving storytelling project in collaboration with the California Department of Education with a grant from the Zellerbach Family Fund, and published numerous educational materials. She is founder of Wisdom Has a Voice memoir project and edited Wisdom Has a Voice: Every Daughter’s Memories of Mother (2011). Farrell is president of Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter, a board member of Redwood Branch of the California Writers Club, member of Story Circle Network and National Association of Memoir Writers.

Amber Lea Starfire, whose passion is helping others tell their stories, is the author of Week by Week: A Year’s Worth of Journaling Prompts & Meditations (2012) and Not the Mother I Remember, due for release in late 2013. A writing teacher and editor, she earned her MFA in Creative Writing from University of San Francisco and is a member of the California Writers Club in Napa and Santa Rosa, the Story Circle Network, National Association of Memoir Writers, and International Association for Journal Writing. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time outdoors. www.writingthroughlife.com.

How about you? If you “came of age” in the ’60s and ’70s, do you have any stories of your own?

If you are  older or younger,  do you have any thoughts on how the ’60s and ’70s shaped women’s lives?

A lucky commenter’s name will be selected in a random drawing to win a free copy of the Time They Were A-Changing anthology.

We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~

Next Week:

Monday, 12/16/13:  “Christmas Past: A  Memoir Moment.”