[Mamzelle]

Giving birth in 1961 was much different than it is today. Remember when a mother got to spend a week in the hospital? Now, think about being a teen mother deserted by "husband." And think about having a white teen mother, mixed race infant in a new city by herself--in 1961, in Seattle, not Hawaii.

Times were very different. Women were not as independent, nor society as open to things not the norm. A white woman with a black infant would have attracted many stares. Air travel was not the bus ride that it is today. It doesn't seem remarkable until you remember that this was the Eisenhower era (maybe not the administration), where girls expected to grow up to be housewives after a year or two of being a secretary.

[parsifal]

I agree. This is why I think she would have come home to mommy in Hawaii to have her baby. And in 1961 people were grown-ups at 18. Ten years or so later, I was pregnant, at age 19, and a daddy at 20. A single dad at 22 for a number of years. That was just the way things were.

I remember the week in the hospital, stuff. And starting college with a 3 week old? And in those days college was not the fluff ball it is today. Did she leave O with her mom? Do we know?

parsy.

[lucysmom]

Air travel was not the bus ride that it is today.

Pregnant woman have to pee a lot. I hope Obama's mom had an aisle seat on those long flights.