Growing up I was a tom-boy, probably because there were all boys and no girls to hang out with in my neighborhood. During my teen years, I was completely obsessed with boys. Back then, I dated the boys who had the fastest cars, 65 gto's, chevelle's, etc. I was a party girl and loved to hang out with the guys. Never once did I ever feel like I wanted to be a guy. Now that I am older, I do appreciate a woman's company rather then a man's. Women tend to listen and adhere to what you are trying to convey to them better. Men seem to pretend to listen and then give you an ok or a yeah as a response. Love to be a Lovely Lady. I just love though, joking around with the guys...trying to keep a step ahead of them.

I work in an area that is dominated by men. As the first and only female I tried my best to hide and just blend in... don't rock the boat. Then one day I decided... what am I hiding for? I don't want to blend in with the men, I'm a woman! They will just have to get over it. Now I carry a pink toolbag with pink and flowery tools LOL! One of the men looked at my toolbag and asked "what in the hell is that?" I told him it was a statement of being me. He just smile and said.. well ok., It felt so good.

i think it is important to confidently celebrate who we are. i think it is one of the great advantages of being our sage age!!

Reminds of when I still could work in machine shops. There was one where I was the only woman on the night shift. First night I was on that job, a guy walks up to my tool box and says, "Who's tool box's this?"

Before I could say anything, one of the guys told him it was mine. He said it couldn't be because what woman would know how to fill a roll-away and a machinist's box with tools? Did not make friends with me that way...

A day or two later, an inspector comes to me and says, "I've heard about your reputation. Is it true?"

I looked him right in the eye and said, "Ok. Tell me which reputation and I'll tell you if it's true."

He blushed and said, "I only meant that at [former work place] I heard about where you'd worked before and what kind of work you did. And since I was only there for a couple days and never got to find out I just thought I'd ask because we have these parts that you may be the only one who knows what to do with them."

I let out a sigh of relief and asked to see one of the parts. He handed me one. As I was looking it over and seeing where the scratched surface was, he said, "We have seven of these. They're parts "they" won't buy with these scratches on that surface. I want to know can you get the scratches out of there and make it look like human hands have not touched them without changing any of the dimensions? And you can't let anything happen to the adjoining [surfaces with special finishes]."

I said, "Oh sure. No problem."

He said, "How long will it take you?"

I said, "Depends. Have they been heat-treated?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, then I'd say about an hour a piece."

He was nervous about it. "We've had these pieces on the shelf because of the scratches for almost two years...Here, do one and I'll let you know about the others after I check the dimensions."

He was thrilled with the results and I spent that night working on just those seven parts.

Several weeks later when I wasn't even thinking about those parts, the inspector came to me again. He said, "I thought you'd like to know....you made the company $70,000.00 during that first week you were!"

"Excuse me? What are we talking about?"

"Remember those seven parts you worked on that one night?"

"Oh, yeah..."

"They're for the Shuttle. N.A.S.A. wouldn't buy them with the scratches but after you fixed them, they bought them. Each one was worth $10,000.00."

The parts were only about 1" thick, and 1-1/2" across, circular. These little things were that much each.

If you think that the beginning of the job was some story, I should tell you sometime about losing that job. It's another strange story.

you know the whole freudian theory of penis envy? well. when i was a little girl, i thought boys penises gradually got smaller and finally dissolved, so that by the time they grew up, they looked just like us!

my friend who had older brothers, we were about 6 at the time, set me straight on that.

when i was a teen, i admired the boy things like colette describes it. i think that is because i perceived the males as having the power. i really didnt have any powerful female role models in my family, and so i did not want to be like them! but by my 30s, i came to understand my own feminine strength and celebrate it.

Rosie,

I'm gonna be really evil here. In my 30's I discovered that, when they pissed me off, I could (shall we say "upset" the guys at work in the machine shop by coming back from lunch with a big deli Kosher dill pickle and meander back to my bench while sucking on it.

Gee, for some reason, they'd stop dead, turn red as hell and for the rest of the night stay out of my way. I can't imagine why....

I know that's not what you meant but for some reason, I suddenly remembered it and just couldn't resist.

i think you can imagine why :)