The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 178, Ed. 1 Sunday, December 18, 1955 Page: 74 of 86
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Abilene Reporter and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Abilene Public Library.
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As I SIT DOWN to write
this article, I can't help notic-
ing the letters stacked on my
desk: invitations to cocktail
parties, a reception, a formal
dinner, and a wedding.
I suppose every bachelor.
even an aging one, gets this
sort of mail! And from where
you sit, it probably sounds
gay. Ten years ago I would
have agreed, and might have
added that nothing quite
compares with the carefree
When he reaches middle age, a bachelor who has preferred a life of freedom and continual parties
finds that this is an unsatisfactory substitute for the comfort and joy of family living.
life of an "eligible" man.
Now I’m not so sure. It's
taken me 55 years, almost a
lifetime, to realize that a
bachelor is not in demand
because he's “eligible” but
because he’s “extra.”
Check your dictionary on
that one, and you’ll see that
“extra" comes from the Latin
and means “outside of " Then
remember Hollywood, where
an “extra” is an actor who
plays “bit” parts When you
get right down to it, a bach-
elor is just that outside the
main stream of life; a guy
who plays bit parts in the
careers, crises, and cocktail
parties of other people
Years ago I would have’
sneered at that definition.
“After all,” I used to tell my-
self as I wriggled into white
tie and tails, “who has a bet-
ter time than I do?”
Staying single is like standing on the side lines while life’s game
As I looked around at my
recently graduated and newly
married friends, the answer
seemed pretty obvious. Joe
Wilson, my closest friend, and
his wife Fran already had
two babies. So did the Millers
and the Stevenses I’d call
them for an evening of fun,
and nine out of ten times the
answer was, "We’d love to.
but no sitter,” or "The baby
has the croup," or “Frankly
old man, we're broke "
The times when we did get
together, the young wives
would get to acting like
Cinderella - turned - chargirl
near midnight They yawned
They glanced at watches Just
as the fun was getting under
way, the young husband was
reminded, “But, dear, the
baby won't wait for the 6
o’clock bottle just because
we've been out late.”
Na -..., ...... ter ...
It wasn't only parties, how-
ever. Fd meet one of the boys
for lunch, and the story was
always the same Worries
money, sick kids, the nagging
mortgage on the conventional
little house!
By the time they were 30.
most of the women looked
tired and seemed to have lost
interest in everything except
their families, the PTA, and
the Scouts. As for the men.
they were tied down by re-
sponsibilities in a world
bounded by a patch of grass
a 20-year mortgage on the
house, a bag of groceries, and
a closet of galoshes
Perhaps what accentuated
all these impressions was the
day I talked to Joe about the
possibility of his going into
business with me Joe was a
struggling lawyer at that time.
passes by, reflects a
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The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 178, Ed. 1 Sunday, December 18, 1955, newspaper, December 18, 1955; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1653950/m1/74/?rotate=90: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Abilene Public Library.