Yesterday, Dusty, Jean and I decided to go to the Santa Rosa Copperfield’s Book Store event to see Barbara Boxer talk about her book The Art of Tough: Fearlessly Facing Politics and Life. Prior to the event we went to Monti’s Rotisserie and Bar for dinner when Barbara Boxer and her husband and a friend came in and sat near us. Of course, I went over and introduced myself, thanked her for all she’s done, and mentioned the book I’m writing about Dusty. After their dinner she stopped and chatted with us for a while before her speech and enjoyed learning about Dusty’s achievements as a lobbyist to Congress and was impressed to hear about Dusty being the first in the country to file a discrimination complaint with the EEOC. She was also gracious enough to say she looks forward to reading my book when it is published. It was such a pleasure to meet her. Here she is signing Dusty’s book:

Dusty and I thoroughly enjoyed being interviewed by three young ladies, 8th graders working on a National History Day (NHD) project about female flight attendants and their important role in the second wave of feminism. As they explained, “Part of the National History Day process is to conduct interviews to achieve a better understanding of the topic. We were inspired to pursue this topic last year when we visited the display in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. on flight attendant uniforms. It was a real eye-opening experience for us as we really understood at this moment how much things had changed for women since the mid-1900s.  This year’s National History Day topic is “Exploration, Encounter and Exchange in History.” We are arguing that by fighting back against the discrimination the female flight attendants faced from their employers, female flight attendants pushed our society to explore the idea of gender equality, and through the changes that they fought for, and the encounters they made in the air, in the courtrooms, and in the halls of Congress, they exchanged the idea that women are not simple objects of attraction, but contributors to the workforce no different from men.”

As a former history teacher, I was happy to arrange the interview with Dusty and me! We thought they were very mature for their grade level, extremely articulate, and well versed in their subject matter.  They just let us know their project won their county and the State of California competition and they are headed to the national competition! See their impressive website and the transcript of our interview at http://36229834.nhd.weebly.com/life-on-board-interviews.html.