[JMR201704121434: metadata edits -- Name.]
Sociology 500, a {replace}Novel{with}Romance{replace.}, ch 1 pt 1 -- Introducing Bobbie
[JMR201704121434: end metadata edit.]
[JMR201704121243: edit -- Probably unnecessary text.]
Well, let's meet Roberta Whitmer.{delete} This will go kind of fast, so keep your eyes open as we go.{delete.}
[JMR201704121243: end-edit.]
[JMR201703082201: edits -- more cleanup.]
On the other{add} of the rack{add.} sat a rather good-looking guy reading admissions materials. He looked like he could be a football player, although he was probably {replace}a couple of{with}several{replace.} years too old to still be playing for the university. There was an empty chair beside him.
---------
As she walked in{add} past him{add.}, he looked up and nodded {replace}absently and{with}an absent-minded greeting, then{replace.} returned to his reading.
---------
"{replace}Hello. May{with}Hi! How may{replace.} I help you?"
---------
"I am aware of that. As I mention in my CV, much of my work in dance involved ethnic dance. That and the languages and cultures I learned as a missionary have been a kind of springboard into anthropology. I have read an introductory text in {replace}archeology{with}anthropology{replace.}," and she named a textbook he knew, "and I think I can see, for instance, how the four fields of physiology, archeology, linguistics, and culture interrelate. I'm not sure yet whether I agree with the four-field point of view of anthropology, but I can appreciate it."
---------
This satisfied Professor MacVittie, and they discussed some non-textbook reading which he thought might help her{replace}, and she volunteered to visit the school several times for further advice before she would enroll{with}.
Bobbie said she would come in again to talk with him before enrolling{replace.} in fall.
At the end of the interview, he encouraged her to submit an application and promised to see that the appropriate members of the department reviewed it{replace}, and encouraged her to come to him again for further advice. Then{with}. He encouraged her to talk with him again for advice, and{replace.} they shook hands{add} again,{add.} and Bobbie left.
[JMR201703082201: end-edits]
[JMR201702031050: edits -- Changed Straitgate to E-P and made some minor adjustments. ]
As she walked in, he looked up and nodded absently,
{strike}maybe a little tiredly,
{strike.} and returned to his reading.
Bobbie gave him her CV and he scanned it
{strike}over
{strike.} for a few minutes, nodding and asking questions.
"I've been specifically preparing, reading other college textbooks on the undergraduate curriculum -- cultures of the world, symbolism and symbolics, morals and ritual, family relationships, the anthropological view of physiology, psychology, economics, politics in particular, religion as a topic outside
{replace}Straitgatism
{with}E-P-ism
{replace.}, quantitative methods, and so forth."
About this "mission" thing: The
{replace}Straitgates
{with}E-P-ists
{replace.} had a program similar to the Mormons' missionary program. In the time frame this story is set in, many young, single
{replace}Straitgate
{with}E-P-ist
{replace.} men would take two to five years out of the time they would usually be spending in college or starting work to serve as full-time proselyting missionaries. The Church was not yet emphasizing the idea that every young man should prepare for and serve a mission, but it was by no means an unusual thing to do.
Young, single
{replace}Straitgate
{with}E-P-ist
{replace.} women at that time were generally not encouraged to go on missions. Their first mission was considered to be in the home.
{replace}On the other hand
{with}Now
{replace.}, in their fields of labor, the women who served as either proselyting or service missionaries were generally seen as the mortal equivalent of angels. "A prophet is not without honor, but in her own country and among her own kin," as the scripture goes.
Didn't I say it would be quick? We'll get to learn more about
{replace}her
{with}Bobbie and Kristie
{replace.} as we go.
{strike}Oh. Did I mention that she is beautiful? No? Hmm.
How about her new roommate, Kristie? No? Hmm.
{strike.}
[JMR201702031050: end-edits]
[JMR201702031050: backup of http://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2017/01/soc500-01-01-bobbie.html before rework incidental to the Straitgate stuff.]
Well, let's meet Roberta Whitmer. This will go fast, so pay attention, ...
Bobbie
entered the anthropology department office and looked around. Near the
receptionist's desk was a rack of pamphlets, catalogs, and other
informational material. On one side of the rack sat a young woman
distractedly reading pamphlets. Bobbie guessed she was waiting to talk
with a member of the faculty or a counselor.
On the
other sat a rather good-looking guy reading admissions materials. He
looked like he could be a football player, although he was probably a
couple of years too old to still be playing for the
university. There was an empty chair beside him.
As she walked in, he looked up and nodded absently, maybe a little tiredly, and returned to his reading.
The receptionist was friendly.
"Hello. May I help you?"
Bobbie
smiled back and approached her desk. "Yes. I'd like some information on
graduate programs. I have a bachelor's in nursing from," and she named a
well-known school with a nursing program, "and a master's in dance
from," and she named another school with a moderately well-known dance
program, "and I'd like to pursue a PhD here in anthropology, focus on
island politics."
The receptionist took a
note in her logbook and said, "Well, I don't think we have a program
specific to island politics, but we do have ongoing fieldwork in
different islands around the world. Let me give you some general
information on graduate studies in the department, and I could schedule an appointment for
you with one of our graduate advisors."
"I would like that, please."
"My name is Melissa Burns, by the way. May I have your name, please?"
"Roberta Whitmer. I go by Bobbie."
Bobbie
took the materials offered and sat down next to the
maybe-football-player to read them. He looked up, smiled politely, and said,
"Nice day, isn't it?" to which Bobbie agreed. She felt a little disconcerted, but a little relieved, when he went back to
reading without further effort at conversation.
Mrs. Burns excused herself for a moment and was soon back.
"Miss
Whitmer, do you have time now? Professor MacVittie, who is one of our
professors working in island societies, is available for a few
minutes."
"That would be wonderful."
"This way, please." Mrs. Burns took Bobbie to a nearby office.
"Miss Whitmer, sir."
"Thank you Mrs. Burns. Please show her in."
Bobbie
thanked Mrs. Burns as she entered the professor's office. She extended
her hand to the professor, who shook it warmly. "Thank you for meeting me, sir.
Please call me Bobbie."
"Nice to meet you, Bobbie. I'm Sheldon MacVittie. Please sit down and tell me a little
about yourself and why you are interested in our graduate program."
Both Bobbie and the professor sat down, and Bobbie introduced herself. "As
I mentioned to Mrs. Burns, I am a nurse. I'm a registered nurse and certified midwife in both this state
and my home state. I have a
bachelor's degree in nursing, and a master's degree in dance."
"Nursing and dance? That's quite a combination."
"I've liked dance and sports ever since I was a cheerleader in high school."
"Okay. Cheerleading, as well. So you already have a broad range of interests."
"Yes.
I, uhm, served a Church service mission in," and she named a mission that
included a lot of island area, "and I spent a considerable amount of
time in the islands there. I found life there interesting, and I've been
doing some limited research in island politics on my own for the past
year."
"I see. Do you have a curriculum vitae with you?"
"Yes, I do."
"May I look it over?"
Bobbie gave him her CV and he scanned it over for a few minutes, nodding and asking questions.
"And you're certified to fly."
"It's
a kind of hobby. My dad encouraged me, and helped me get certified.
I've sometimes flown for his business, although I haven't been able to
fly much since getting a job as a nurse."
"Such a broad
range of interests. I'd almost say too broad. Has anyone ever accused
you of lacking in focus?" And he gave the CV back to her.
"Not really, I work hard at everything I do.
"Well enough, but you are looking to enter a field for which
your training in physical education and nursing will have only partially
prepared you. Not only that, but you will find the terminology, and
even the ways of thinking, somewhat foreign."
"I am
aware of that. As I mention in my CV, much of my work in dance involved
ethnic dance. That and the languages and cultures I learned as a
missionary have been a kind of springboard into anthropology. I have read an introductory text in
archeology," and she named a textbook he knew, "and I think I can see, for instance, how the
four fields of physiology, archeology, linguistics, and culture
interrelate. I'm not sure yet whether I agree with the four-field point of view of anthropology, but I can appreciate it."
"Okay, so you probably have one freshman-level class out of the way."
"I've
been specifically preparing, reading other college textbooks on the
undergraduate curriculum -- cultures of the world, symbolism and
symbolics, morals and ritual, family relationships, the anthropological
view of physiology, psychology, economics, politics in particular,
religion as a topic outside Straitgatism, quantitative methods, and so
forth."
"Where did you find time?"
"I've been carrying
a textbook with me whenever I went anywhere, including work. I learned
to speed-read a long time ago. It's not emotionally satisfying, but it
gets the job done."
"Okay," the professor smiled, "I get the picture that you are not just daydreaming."
"I
know I'm going to have to work hard to get ready for graduate level
work. I'm weak in quantitative analysis, so I'm assuming I'll be taking
that among the undergraduate classes I'll need. Hopefully, I can get by
with just monitoring linguistics. Maybe you can give me some suggestions
for additional preparation before I start attending classes next fall."
This satisfied Professor MacVittie, and they
discussed some non-textbook reading which he thought might help her, and
she volunteered to visit the school several times for further advice before
she would enroll in fall.
At
the end of the interview, he encouraged her to submit an application
and promised to see that the appropriate members of the department
reviewed it, and encouraged her to come to him again for further advice. Then they
shook hands and Bobbie left.
On her way out, she
stopped back by the department office to make sure she had the
application documents, instructions, and other materials she needed. The
maybe-football-player was no longer there.
At Mrs.
Burns
suggestion, she worked through the application forms before she left,
filling out most of them so that she would have fewer questions when she
returned home. She also left her name, address, and phone number, in
case Professor MacVittie wanted to contact her.
Then
she returned to the parking lot. She had borrowed the family car for the
three-hour trip south from her hometown to the school, and she took
time to look around campus, look at apartments in town, and so forth.
Before she left town, she stopped by the hospital, to ask if they might be
interested in hiring her part-time in a year. Of course, there were no
promises, but she was able to introduce herself to some of the
regular staff.
When she returned home, her mom was in the living room, reading a book.
"How did it go?"
"Well
enough. I met a professor, met some people at the hospital down there,
and got a look at the town. Brought home a lot of application
paperwork."
"Meet any interesting guys?"
"No, of course not." She laughed.
"Well, sort of. There was this guy in the department office who was
probably also getting ready to apply for post-grad work. He said hi, but
that was it."
"He didn't hit on you?"
"No.
Didn't ask for my phone number, didn't even introduce himself. Nice
looking guy, too. Almost everyone I met was very nice. Almost as nice as
being at Church here. Maybe I'll like it there."
She spent the next several weeks working on the application forms,
making another CV for the application, and so forth. About a month
later, she had her application ready, and returned to the university to submit it.
Several months later, when she
received approval to start taking classes in preparation for becoming a
PhD candidate, she gave initial notice at the hospital where she was
working and got her dad to help her buy her own car.
Later,
she went back to the university and made arrangements for an
apartment off-campus for her first year. She met one of the women who
would be her roommates during that first year, a petite, active blonde
named Kristie Person, who was finishing her bachelor's in Physical
Education and was getting ready for master's level work in Education.
She was able to arrange to work on call as a midwife for emergency
deliveries, and to work at the hospital there on the weekends, to help
stretch her savings and keep her skills fresh.
From the
time she went to get the application forms and materials until she
started actually taking classes was about eight months. (These days, in our world,
that would be a rather short time. Back then in hers it wasn't especially short or
long.)
Sometime that summer, her mother showed her an
interview article in the newspaper about one of the students who would
be beginning graduate studies at OHU at the same time as she would. He was a
former football player at the school named Karel Pratt, who had spent
two years in professional football while completing his master's degree
in engineering, and would now be seeking a PhD in the same field she was
choosing, anthropology.
He had been working for more
than two years as an engineer, in the new field of semiconductor
fabrication. But the company he had been working for failed, and he had
decided to take the opportunity to pursue a new field.
The
article had been picked up by the national press because he was an
example of football players who were pursuing careers in academics
during and after their professional football careers.
About
this "mission" thing: The Straitgates had a program similar to the
Mormons' missionary program. In the time frame this story is set in,
many
young, single Straitgate men would take two to five years out of the
time they would usually be spending in college or starting work to serve
as full-time proselyting missionaries. The Church was not yet
emphasizing the idea that every young man should prepare for and serve a
mission, but it was by no means an unusual thing to do.
Serving a mission was for them an expression of their faith in their Lord and in His Church.
Young, single Straitgate women at that time were generally not encouraged to go on missions. Their
first mission was considered to be in the home.
Unfortunately,
there was often a bit of social stigma associated with women who went
on missions. Women serving proselyting missions were often considered by
the gossips in their home wards to be "past their prime" days for being
courted -- or some such silliness.
However, a service mission
was a little different, often being considered, socially speaking, as a
recognition of skills that the woman had developed. Single women who had
qualified to work as nurses or in other service capacities would, in
fact, often be recruited to serve in areas of the world where medical
or other services were needed and hard to get. A proselyting mission was "for
women who hadn't been trying hard enough" -- according to the wags. But a
service mission was obviously different.
On the other
hand, in their fields of labor, the women who served as either
proselyting or service missionaries were generally seen as the mortal
equivalent of angels. "A prophet is not without honor, but in her own country and among her own kin," as the scripture goes.
Which just goes to show that gossip is a bad thing, even in a good church. Especially in a good church.
It
would be several years later that women in general began to be
encouraged to serve missions, and the artifact social stigma would begin
to be eased.
Didn't I say it would be quick? We'll get to learn more about her as we go.
Oh. Did I mention that she is beautiful? No? Hmm.
How about her new roommate, Kristie? No? Hmm.
The original of this chapter can be found
here.
[JMR201702031050: end-backup]
