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The setup

The Whittaker Saga: the setup

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 I  was vastly inspired when reading the decades challenge, and as a history teacher, I could not stop myself from giving it a try. Of course, true to my nature or refusing to do things by the book, the first thing I did was break the rules. How? By creating as my protagonist a single, working woman living on her own! Gasp! Why? Partly because a story popped into my head, but also, partly, to honor the many women who - by choice or necessity - actually worked, and worked hard for their living in the 1890s. We tend to forget them, but the working women were there - from the hard working farmers that we often downgrade by calling wives, as if they weren't an essential part of the economy of the farm, to the working class women working as domestic help or in the factories where they were only payed half of a man's wages.  So with that, I introduce Abigail Spencer, a single, working, middle class woman in 1890s Willow Creek:  As middle class there is only a few jobs avai...
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1980s: Dreams fullfilled

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As Cathy and Beth are getting their lives in order, so is Susan. Work wise, she is making great progress, and the polluted, run down area she moved to is quickly becoming one of the most desirable places in town. Lots is left to do, however, and Susan is more than eager to throw herself into her work.  Next on her list is the "recreation centre" in town, as much old factory as everything else. What she sees on her inspection is shocking. A "playroom" for toddlers in a container that gets way too hot in summer, toxic waste on the yard next to a basketball hoop for the guests. When she confronts the owners there is a long list of things they need to address immediately, and an equally long list of things they can improve should they choose to.  Luckily The owners are more than willing to listen to Susan's ideas and plans, and not only do they adress what they legally must, but this turns out to be one of Susan's biggest triumph's yet.  Gone is the toxic wa...
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1980s: It's all about style

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For Cathy this is a happy time. She turns Steve's bachelor pad into a home they both can enjoy living in. She doesn't quite understand why Steve is insisting on having the TV downstairs. "It's so ugly, can't we have it upstairs in your office instead?" "The TV stays, and my office stays as it is, until we need the space for a nursery. Anything else is up to you." Cathy thinks he's a bit unreasonable, but agrees all the same. After all, he should have equal influence over their home. "So when do you think would be the right time for that nursery?" "Whenever you feel ready," Steve says and right then and there Caty could live with a hundred TVs in the living room. It does also help that she's been given her own walk in closet to tie her over until she can decorate that nursery. Beth, on her hand, is settling into her new home in Creek Lake, where the autumn have started to change the color of the leaves. It's a small h...
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