I noticed the other day that I hadn't seen a "Lois Jurgens" around in a while, this after seeing fewer of them as the years pass. "Lois Jurgens" is the blanket name I gave any older woman I saw, women from another era.
Between my office and the coffee shop sits a very previous era women's beauty shop. Where it used to be that Red Wing had one of these on just about any street downtown and they were all busy, now there is, I think, just one. The clientele is very silver-haired, with more walkers than canes. These women come from a time when all women "made an appointment at the beauty shop" and had their hair done once a week or so. My grandma, in the 1970s, would have a "wash and set" at a beauty shop while my grandpa and I sat in the old Dodge and waited for her.
Honestly, I am unclear on what services are performed in the beauty shop by my office. All I do know is that when I am making a run back to the office with a coffee--fine, a donut and a coffee--and if they have the door open to the beauty shop then the fumes from the chemicals they use roll out in nausiating waves. I quick peek in the window as I trot by and see four chairs filled with older women with their heads encased in all sorts of different chemical treatments. I suppose they are "getting a permanent" to use the 1970s phrase.
The women who frequent beauty shops--or did, not too many around any more--sort of all looked the same. They appear of the vintage that is well versed in when a social security check might arrive, and had probably lived through the great depression as children or teens. They all dress more or less the same--tightly buttoned-up housejacket around them, and then a scarf over their heads, knotted under their chin. This is how they dressed pre-beauty shop. After the treatment, they could carry the scarf and the jacket, walk home with the hair frozen for a week. This is the modern equivalent of a present day woman going for a hair appointment wearing a baseball cap and sweatshirt.
It was once quite common to see older women dressed in this way every day in the downtown area. And every time I watched one cross the street or pulled out to pass one on the sidewalk I'd think to myself "Lois Jurgens".
That's because the last time I saw Lois Jurgens she was dressed in just that way. Scarf, housejacket buttoned to the neck, clutching her purse, sitting in court, awaitiing sentence.
What's your podium for the top three heinous persons in the history of mankind? For most it's probably the usual suspects: Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot. Can't go wrong there, between the three of them they killed tens of millions and used cruelty like a belt sander on entire nations.
For me, I'd probably go Hitler, Stalin and Lois Jurgens.
Don't feel like the Lone Ranger in not having ever heard of Lois. It has been my experince that people in Minnesota don't remember Lois Jurgens very well, and if they do, they are surprised to learn that she is still alive and actually not incarcerated. The vast majority of peope I talk to about Lois have no idea who she is or what she did. It's an interesting outcome for a woman convicted of murder and suspected--with cause--of so much more murder and misery. One sentence that I sometimes use to jog memories is to say--"you know, Lois, the women who punished her son by attaching clothespins to his penis". Yeah--that woman.
My wife once theorized that no matter how good a job you try to do as a parent, in the end, your kids will think you, at least, could have done better job or that you were just plain awful at it. It's the nature of the relationship, to a degree, and with the vast majority of things my wife says they are as true as the sun.
Okay, so Parent of the Year awards have yet to be delivered to the house as yet. But at the same time ...
Lois Jurgens should serve as a pallet-cleaning wash for all nostalgiaists who think the world was better 30-40-50 years ago when "life was simpler". Life probably was much more simple then, with clearly defined laws or social rules which marginalized nearly everyone in some way. But it was also a time when sick and demented people were allowed to adopt children, when your brother could probably insure that ongoing police investigations fell off the back of the desk. When little boys were put into a small casket with their body covered in bruises and no one seemed to bat an eye.
Lois is still alive I'm told, living in nearby Stillwater. She has served her sentence--of what they could convict her on--and she's free to walk the streets. Scarf pulled tight, housejacket buttoned to the neck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Jurgens
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/31/us/minnesota-woman-found-guilty-of-killing-adopted-son-in-1965.html
Between my office and the coffee shop sits a very previous era women's beauty shop. Where it used to be that Red Wing had one of these on just about any street downtown and they were all busy, now there is, I think, just one. The clientele is very silver-haired, with more walkers than canes. These women come from a time when all women "made an appointment at the beauty shop" and had their hair done once a week or so. My grandma, in the 1970s, would have a "wash and set" at a beauty shop while my grandpa and I sat in the old Dodge and waited for her.
Honestly, I am unclear on what services are performed in the beauty shop by my office. All I do know is that when I am making a run back to the office with a coffee--fine, a donut and a coffee--and if they have the door open to the beauty shop then the fumes from the chemicals they use roll out in nausiating waves. I quick peek in the window as I trot by and see four chairs filled with older women with their heads encased in all sorts of different chemical treatments. I suppose they are "getting a permanent" to use the 1970s phrase.
The women who frequent beauty shops--or did, not too many around any more--sort of all looked the same. They appear of the vintage that is well versed in when a social security check might arrive, and had probably lived through the great depression as children or teens. They all dress more or less the same--tightly buttoned-up housejacket around them, and then a scarf over their heads, knotted under their chin. This is how they dressed pre-beauty shop. After the treatment, they could carry the scarf and the jacket, walk home with the hair frozen for a week. This is the modern equivalent of a present day woman going for a hair appointment wearing a baseball cap and sweatshirt.
It was once quite common to see older women dressed in this way every day in the downtown area. And every time I watched one cross the street or pulled out to pass one on the sidewalk I'd think to myself "Lois Jurgens".
That's because the last time I saw Lois Jurgens she was dressed in just that way. Scarf, housejacket buttoned to the neck, clutching her purse, sitting in court, awaitiing sentence.
What's your podium for the top three heinous persons in the history of mankind? For most it's probably the usual suspects: Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot. Can't go wrong there, between the three of them they killed tens of millions and used cruelty like a belt sander on entire nations.
For me, I'd probably go Hitler, Stalin and Lois Jurgens.
Don't feel like the Lone Ranger in not having ever heard of Lois. It has been my experince that people in Minnesota don't remember Lois Jurgens very well, and if they do, they are surprised to learn that she is still alive and actually not incarcerated. The vast majority of peope I talk to about Lois have no idea who she is or what she did. It's an interesting outcome for a woman convicted of murder and suspected--with cause--of so much more murder and misery. One sentence that I sometimes use to jog memories is to say--"you know, Lois, the women who punished her son by attaching clothespins to his penis". Yeah--that woman.
My wife once theorized that no matter how good a job you try to do as a parent, in the end, your kids will think you, at least, could have done better job or that you were just plain awful at it. It's the nature of the relationship, to a degree, and with the vast majority of things my wife says they are as true as the sun.
Okay, so Parent of the Year awards have yet to be delivered to the house as yet. But at the same time ...
Lois Jurgens should serve as a pallet-cleaning wash for all nostalgiaists who think the world was better 30-40-50 years ago when "life was simpler". Life probably was much more simple then, with clearly defined laws or social rules which marginalized nearly everyone in some way. But it was also a time when sick and demented people were allowed to adopt children, when your brother could probably insure that ongoing police investigations fell off the back of the desk. When little boys were put into a small casket with their body covered in bruises and no one seemed to bat an eye.
Lois is still alive I'm told, living in nearby Stillwater. She has served her sentence--of what they could convict her on--and she's free to walk the streets. Scarf pulled tight, housejacket buttoned to the neck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Jurgens
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/31/us/minnesota-woman-found-guilty-of-killing-adopted-son-in-1965.html