Loretta Lynn_ Coal Miner's Daughter - Loretta Lynn [34]
On Saturday morning I went down to the Paintsville post office and watched that hussy pick up her mail. When she came out, you could tell she was furious. Just then, along comes Doolittle, walking down the street. I could see her jaws a-moving, telling him to give back her picture, which he still had. Then she took off down the street, still mad. I don’t think Doolittle ever heard from her again—and good riddance.
Now the reason I’m telling the story is this: we’ve been married for a long time, in a business with a lot of traveling involved. I’m not the backward little country girl I was then. I was just learning that there’s a lot of women who like to move in on other women’s husbands, and I don’t go for it. I made my point in “Fist City,” which is a song about a real woman in Tennessee who was making eyes at Doolittle while I was a-singing on the stage.
I let her know she was gonna get a mouthful of knuckles if she kept it up. And I’d have done it. I’ve always had a bad temper when it came to seeing women making eyes at my man. Let ’em go get their own if they’re so good.
It wasn’t until much later that men started making moves on me—I’ll get into that later. But here I was, fourteen years old and learning the facts of life the hard way. Sure, I’ve heard people say men are bound to run around a little bit. It’s their nature. Well, shoot, I don’t believe in double standards, where men can get away with things that women can’t. In God’s eyes, there’s no double standard. That’s one of the things I’ve been trying to say in my songs. Lots of country songs are about people trying to get along—falling in love, quarreling, having affairs, messing up their lives. That’s life, and we’ve got to face it.
But life works both ways. There’s plenty of songs about how women should stand by their men and give them plenty of loving when they walk through the door, and that’s fine. But what about the man’s responsibility? A man is supposed to give his wife a good time, too. Let him be tender with her once in a while, too. And it’s even more important for two people to respect each other—you don’t save a marriage just by putting on some sexy nightgown when your old man comes home from the factory. But maybe the old man could save the marriage by asking his wife, “What do you think we should do about this situation?” No woman likes to be told, “Here’s the deal.”
I’m not a big fan of Women’s Liberation, but maybe it will help women stand up for the respect they’re due. And maybe they won’t be cutting each other up so much. I don’t like seeing women act so jealous about other women. You hear it backstage at the Opry, you hear it when women get together for coffee. They should talk about the things they have in common—families, cooking, jobs, whatever. If they can’t talk to their husbands, because their husbands don’t care what they think, well, at least they should talk with other women. But it don’t work out that way. Women are too jealous. I know women who get upset if they see me hug their husbands and tell ’em I love ’em. I’ve gotten in trouble just for being friendly with people. The men get the wrong idea and so do their wives.
Anyway, I think it’s about time people were more respectful of each other. I know how I wanted to be treated when I got married.
10
Two Thousand Miles From Home
But here in Topeka, the rain is a-fallin’,
The faucet is a-drippin’ and the kids are a-bawlin’
One of ’em’s a-toddlin’ and one is a-crawlin’,
And … one’s on the way….
—“One’s on the Way,” by Shel Silverstein
One of the reasons we were able to talk my parents into letting me get married was because Doo promised not to take me far from home. But a year after we got married, I found myself two thousand miles from home.
It was probably a good idea anyway. When a young couple gets