PRESS RELEASE – Georgetta Kuhman opened her home for the April Taine Club meeting. Alice Miller was co-hostess. President Jackie Boyd led the business meeting with secretary and treasurer reports.
The yearly contribution will be decided at the May luncheon. Next year’s officers were announced, Vicki Rathbun, president, Sue Compo, vice president, Georgetta Kuhman, secretary, and Helene Moog, Treasurer.
This year’s theme “A Gift of Friendship” was the topic of the book reviewed by Kuhman. Girl Squads: 20 Female Friendships That Changed History by Sam Maggs is a fun and feisty tour of famous girl BFFs from history who stuck together and changed the world and showed how essential female friendships have been across history and around the world.
It tells of women in the arts, science, politics, activism, and sports for thousands of years in many different countries. Kuhman shared several of the stories in the book.
The 1964 gold medal volleyball team from Japan really began in the early 50’s when the young girls worked in the textile mills.
After World War II, Japan had lost its identity along with soldiers, civilians, and infrastructure. It bounced back with manufacturing, cars and technology. After high school, girls went to work in the textile mills.
After long days, they needed recreation and started playing volleyball. Competition was fierce. Six girls became very close and supportive. Their coach was “Daimatsu the Demon” who put them through “Homicidal Training” and “Murderous Exercise” but never corporal punishment. They went to the world championships and came in second behind the Russians.
The 1964 Olympics were in Japan to show the world the country had rebuilt since the war. The Japanese Women’s Volleyball team beat the Russians for a gold medal and dominated the sport for many years and made Japan proud.
The Edinburgh Seven were close friends who became the first women admitted to medical school in the United Kingdom. But their path in the mid-1800’s was not easy.
They were harassed by men, called whores and had food and mud thrown in the faces as they went to class. Men doctors thought female brains were smaller than males and not as intelligent.
When they graduated, one started the London School of Medicine for Women. The others either stayed in the UK or went to other places in the world, but they always remained close and supported each other.
Other stories included lady pirates who sailed the seven seas and plundered with the best of men, indigenous twin sisters who went on to become Olympic skiers and broke barriers in the sport, girls in the Dominican Republic who changed the face of education for women who thought the pen was mightier than the sword, and the Zohra Orchestra, an ensemble from Afghanistan who defied laws, danger and threats to become the nation’s first all-female musical group.
The common thread in all of these stories was the power of female friendships and how they changed history.
The next Taine Club meeting will be a luncheon on Monday, May 12, noon at the Williams County Public Library. Pictured above are Alice Miller, Georgetta Kuhman, Jackie Boyd
