In Honor of Women’s History Month:
Long Live the Avon Lady
 By Robyn Hall

My mom was an Avon Lady.  I bet a lot of you can say the same thing.  That’s because today there are more than 6,000,000 Avon representatives serving 300 million women in more than 100 countries.

I admit that I was embarrassed by my mom bringing the famous “Ding Dong, Avon Calling” phrase to life.  Avon was (and still is) considered a low cost, less than prestigious beauty company.  I remember the countless hours of stuffing powder, polish and perfume into paper bags and piling into our Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser to help my mom deliver the merchandise.  My mom was a “single mom” back in the 1970s, when that phrase had yet to be invented, and the only jobs for women were as a nurse, teacher, or secretary.  With six kids to feed, clothe, and send to college, my mom had to do something to make ends meet. 

Avon was started in 1886 in New York City by a man, David McConnell, a salesman who switched from hustling hard covers to pushing perfume door-to-door.

I’m sorry—what did you say? Relationships all over the world are being tested due to the simple fact that most of us are at an age when our hearing is not what it previously was.  Selective hearing has progressed to,“ I don’t have a clue that you are even in the room”.  Wives can become frustrated, even annoyed,  (I think that is what you call it when you see fire coming out of women’s eyes?)  Since communication is a key part of any relationship, if your husband exists in a near soundless fog it IS impacting both of you negatively.

While riding with my dear friends recently I remarked, “where are you dinning tonight”, Robert replied, “no, we don’t know them”.  Where do I go from there?  His wife rolled her eyes, I was in hysterics.  (I have seen that reaction hundreds of times).  I have to repeat myself so much I am beginning to feel like a parrot—and yelling all the time gives me a headache.  My Mom can’t hear her cell phone ring when it is in her pocket, but assures me that she is not THAT hard of hearing—sure Mom.  Plus, isn’t it dangerous to think you can hear when you can’t?

IT SPRING!!  Over the weekend the vernal equinox occurred, when the length of our days become equal, (and going forward longer), with the length of night.  Rejuvenation and rebirth are everywhere.  What is your rejuvenation project?  I know—you like yourself just the way you are.  REALLY?  Exactly the way you are? 

We change, the world changes, and part of our AgingButDangerous philosophy is to stay in step with the universe.  Ever changing knowledge feeds the soul.  In many cases our automobiles and our homes get more maintenance than our “containers” or our brains.  Just because you have been doing something for years doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be a little upgrade in your future.