April 13, 2006:
The secret lies partly in class. Working class children don't do art, they go to college to become white collar professionals to escape the factory life which is otherwise their doom.
That's understandable. She worked her whole life on the same shopfloor where her mother worked her whole life. For a few dollars an hour, where only the union kept her secure from abuse, from termination, from poverty after retirement.
It's not understandable. In spirit she fought to doom her children to the same defeat as hers. The loss of their dreams.