
Originally Posted by
Unboxxed
1) Back in the 80s a married woman at work was throwing a party at her house and this became known in the office, no big deal, but she figured I would feel snubbed by her for not being invited, as she and I had known each other for awhile, having both moved from another state where we had worked together before. So maybe she thought I would notice she invited only her new coworker-friends or something. Anyway, she pulled me aside and sincerely explained to me that she was inviting only married couples because the dynamic is different with only married couples than when singles are there. I knew what she meant but I didn't care that she didn't invite me; I didn't know her outside of work anyway and just didn't care. Besides, she was right. It sounded like she wanted the kind of scene where couples would sit around and role-play their married status in their conversations, show off their spouses, etc. As a single, I would stick out like a sore thumb, making them have to break role to include me in conversation, likely. Ha, women cannot role-play if Unboxxed is drawing the men away to the garage to hit the beer. LOL
But what I remember is that she saw a discrete difference between married people and single people.
I'm not gonna fault her. She was all right. I liked her. She was pretty classy in style and dress, a cut above how the other female coworkers dressed. She never swore. Funny, when it came time for us to go on strike, she knew I was strong union and she pulled me aside to try to find out just how mad I would be at her if she crossed the picket line. I explained to her that all of us had ample time to prepare and save money and she has two incomes for this preparation, being married, whereas I have only one income yet I am able to do it. I'll never forget that she tried to explain the severity of their financial situation by saying that when they entertain at their home, they now have to resort to pouring cheap wine into expensive-looking bottles to fool their guests! She was so sincere when she explained that, her voice got down to a whisper!
Well, God bless her. That makes twice that she was concerned over my opinion of her.
2) Other than that, and the one time my oldest sister ragged on me about when-am-I-gonna-get-married until I told her to knock it off, nobody has ever made it apparent to me if they valued me less because single. And, now that I am older, my peer group is largely single again through divorce or death of spouse, so nobody bothers with caring about it. I lunch monthly with other retired folks and the married ones don't give a shit if you are married or not. I think we are just happy to be treated well and to have friends at all.