Palin gets to play by Girls' Rules.

redcedar

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Sunday September 07, 2008 · 3:47 PM PDT

2008/09/07 · 15:47

In 1962, I graduated from high school in a rural area that has since become a typical upscale suburb in Chester County, PA. (Upscale was a word that hadn’t been invented yet.) There were 90 kids in my graduating class.

Throughout high school, I played field hockey and "girls’ basketball." I was not an athlete, just a nice cooperative girl with enough energy to run around for a couple of hours in the afternoon after school. A girl like me would never make any sports team at the local high schools today, where girls are on the front page of the sports section as often as boys.

Nobody expected me (or any of the other girls) to be an athlete. It wasn’t required. Girls sports weren’t really sports. Girls sports were games, something to keep the girls happy and healthy for their real role in life. That role was to take a shower after practice and go cheer for the boys at their games, which were played at night, under lights, with lots of screaming and shouting. Playing girls' sports was how you got out of having to take gym that semester.

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