Joining the growing feminist/lesbian network By Jeanne Arnold Barbara’s bookstore dream became a nightmare. At first our store succeeded and sold many books like Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle and Marilyn French’s The Woman’s Room. Then the Regency Mall opened with two big-chain bookstores that ruined our sales. When Barbara was a teenager, she imagined being a Christian missionary. “Now…

Proud of being “OUT” By Jeanne Arnold Madison’s book shoppers seemed quite blasé about Barbara’s eight life-sized but headless nude paintings hanging for her one-woman show at Room of One’s Own, the only thriving feminist bookstore in Wisconsin. The manager appreciated them. She smiled saying, “The girls certainly do warm up the room.”  To celebrate Barbara’s…

The horse knows the way By Jeanne Arnold Because of my extra time wrapped in a blanket hearing New Age music at the Osmosis Enzyme Bath and Massage spa, I was behind schedule more than I planned. The healing relaxation of my body and mind turned to stress when I jumped in my rented Neon,…

By Jeanne Arnold A day of self-indulgence awaited me, one so extremely nurturing that I wept at the start of it, my most extravagant day. And I needed it. I was delighted with my view on this August morning’s drive on Highway 1 to Freestone, California. The Pacific Ocean’s fog hung over the mountains with…

By Jeanne Arnold The April sun pokes—no, dimly casts a cool light through the midpoint branches of the evergreen tree. Except for that point of the sun, you’d think it was late November because of the snow cover around us, a orange-pink color on the whiteness to the west, From my window I noticed a…

By Jeanne Arnold  After treating them to lunch, my gang moaned about their lost love of making music, a memory that has been sounding within us all. Barbara and Betty play together but Joanne’s accordion lives in her attic; Mary Lou remembers playing the piano; Sharon likes her bongo drum but is tempted to learn…

by Jeanne Arnold I’m not shy but I’m not rowdy. I’m a feminist but I’m not strident. I’m a Racine native, but I’ve been around. I lived a straight life for half of it and I chose to live as a lesbian life with my partner for the other half. I’m a happy mother, grandmother,…