Forgotten oldies



The other night, when we were well into the card-playing part of our Book Club meeting, my canasta partner discarded an eight when the player on her left had four of them on the table. It was an embarrassing but forgiveable lapse by a usually astute player. We moved on. Then, on her next turn, beggaring belief, she did it again, this time with tens. It had become an Incident, and she treated us to a fabulously theatrical display of horror, remorse and self-reproach, very funny but not entirely insincere. Then she rallied to proclaim valiantly, 'But I will rise in my unclean body.' I thought she was reverting to some kind of Albigensian moment from her childhood, and the others, all women of a certain age, must have looked blank as well, because she went on, 'Don't you remember?' , and began to sing, lustily:

We are rising in our unclean bodies

By then all but me had recognised the song and joined in:

More powerful than any man alive.

No one could remember what came next. Someone whipped out a Blackberry, but Google yielded no results. Do any of my readers know the words?

And what about 'We're shameless hussies and we don't give a damn' and 'Don't be too polite girls'? Are there others?

Can it be that the feminist anthems of the 70s are in the process of being lost to history? Doesn't anyone care?

Posted: Tue - March 17, 2009 at 09:09 AM           |

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