Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Marie's Father Took Care Of Business

As you go through Marie's posts you are finding a common thread of "eat or be eaten" to put it bluntly. You had to be tough in a large family. She had a father who was a dominant disciplinarian and she was the oldest child.
She was educated only because the law insisted on it. She worked hard at home and away from home. Her parents took her wages except for one dollar a week. Work wasn't always something that she looked forward to. This is a story I have heard many times.
When Marie worked in a pants factory there was a young  man that in our times would be accused and convicted of sexual harassment. She complained about his flirting and sexual advances to no avail. One day he came up behind her and whispered something to her that was off color. It startled her and she whirled around and in so doing, she hit him as she said, "in a place that hurt him." She was called into the office and was told that she couldn't do that to a man. She told her supervisor that it wasn't right that he kept after her for dates and wouldn't take no for answer. She told her supervisor that she didn't mean to hit him. It had been an accident.
The supervisor did a very wise thing. He transferred him to the basement to work in shipping. It wasn't long before they discovered that he was stealing trousers and selling them on his own. He was not only fired but he was blackballed from working in the industry.
Marie told her parents about it. This time her father believed her, but did nothing about it until, the young man decided that he would go to Marie's house and take her out without asking her first. Her father answered the door with a gun in his hand. Marie never had to worry about that young man again.
Interesting how things were handled eighty or so years ago without a single shot being fired.





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