00:00:00.080 - 00:00:13.460

[Emily Bonistall] Okay. This is an interview. with Suzanne Cherrin on April 29th Beginning at 11 in the morning. And I think our tape is good. [Suzanne Cherrin] Good.

00:00:13.460 - 00:00:26.090

[EB] Okay. So do you mind if we we go through most of it? And what you can answer, great. [SC] Sure. [EB] And if there's things that you can't we'll just skip over.

00:00:26.090 - 00:00:37.120

[SC] Yeah. [EB] Okay. Let's start with a couple background questions. [SC] Okay. [EB] Can you tell me where you grew up? And what it was like growing up as a girl there? [SC] Oh, you want to go way back?

00:00:37.120 - 00:00:45.880

Way back because I'm old, so we going to go way way back. Well, I didn't move to Delaware until I was 12.

00:00:45.880 - 00:00:56.700

I think it was around 12. I grew up in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland. And it was a kind of crazy time.

00:00:56.700 - 00:01:06.200

I think I started junior high in Maryland in, right outside of College Park where the University of Maryland is.

00:01:06.200 - 00:01:15.500

But it was technically, Hyattsville which is kind of a working class neighborhood. And growing up there was

00:01:15.500 - 00:01:29.480

coming from, actually being a girl in rural Connecticut and moving to this place in Maryland with all kinds of attitude and girls,

00:01:29.480 - 00:01:36.150

you know, doing their junior high school thing, it was "Wow, what's going on?" "What do I have to do to fit in?"

00:01:36.150 - 00:01:45.410

How, you know, "How can I be popular?" that kind of thing, I remember. And then before I was 13,

00:01:45.410 - 00:01:53.360

we moved to Delaware. And that was also difficult because a lot of the kids had gone to school with

00:01:53.360 - 00:02:03.860

each other, elementary school. And so it took me awhile to get into a group in a clique, and figure out.

00:02:03.860 - 00:02:13.360

And in, I think by and large, the teenagers here were mostly tamer actually than they were in Maryland.

00:02:13.360 - 00:02:24.100

They weren't I had seen, like some wild and crazy stuff when I was back in like sixth, seventh grade, but I remember that.

00:02:24.100 - 00:02:36.160

So I know the one thing I tell my classes still in high school is that we had Home Ec for the girls, we had Shop for the boys.

00:02:36.160 - 00:02:45.260

And so, you know, you didn't learn anything about woodcarving or anything interesting. You learned how to cook.

00:02:45.260 - 00:02:58.100

You learned how to sew. Things I never cared for very much. Just Home Ec was, was a very big challenge to me.

00:02:58.100 - 00:03:05.610

I think I would have done better in Shop, probably. [EB] So there were different expectations for the boys and the girls?

00:03:05.610 - 00:03:13.070

[SC] Absolutely. In fact, we had a Social Studies teacher who was very popular.

00:03:13.070 - 00:03:23.470

He was a fairly young man and dynamic. And there weren't many men teaching in those days. So he would say to us,

00:03:23.470 - 00:03:33.440

"You have to choose a curriculum." We, at that time, we had to choose either the academic curriculum, that meant we were going to college,

00:03:33.440 - 00:03:41.530

the commercial curriculum, which was we're going to get a job right after school and it'll be business-related.

00:03:41.530 - 00:03:50.360

And or the general curriculum, which actually was code for you're not very smart and you're going to take

00:03:50.360 - 00:03:59.750

some kind of a working-class position. So he said to us, "You know, you girls, what you should do is

00:03:59.750 - 00:04:09.560

you should all sign up for the commercial curriculum because boys need to go to college, but girls can go on

00:04:09.560 - 00:04:20.650

from here and become secretaries." And he even had the audacity. He didn't see anything wrong with this. He said, "When you're working as secretaries,

00:04:20.650 - 00:04:29.580

you'll probably be able to meet the man of your dreams." You know, if you ever watch Mad Men, it was like that.

00:04:29.580 - 00:04:38.420

But I went home and told my parents and they said, "Well, you're gonna go to college." So, you know, "Thank you, Mom and Dad!"

00:04:38.420 - 00:04:47.850

They said there's there's no two ways about it. Both of my parents are college educated. Yeah.

00:04:47.850 - 00:04:57.100

My dad is deceased, but he was a PhD chemist. He wrote books. Brilliant man.

00:04:57.100 - 00:05:14.330

And my mom also has her Master's degree in Psychology. And she taught for many years in high school and in college.

00:05:14.330 - 00:05:25.640

And so, she's done really, she was really early for her time in education and stuff. Can we cut for a second

00:05:25.640 - 00:05:28.830

so I can get a drink of water? [EB] Sure. [SC] Okay.