Just ordered from amazon, woo-hoo.

Thanks everyone for the great replies.

You'll be able to spot me on the cruise; I'll be the one wearing the "Billie Jean is not my lover" t-shirt, lol.

Billie Jean's book is titled : Pressure Is a Privilege: Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes. Published last month. I've not read it yet.

Thanks, Rhonda, for your kind words. Just today, I found out that Olivia has obtained permission to show a brand-new Billie Jean documentary. It will be running all week during the trip, so that when the sisters go back to their cabins to rest up after dancing/swimming/shopping/snorkeling, etc., we'll be able to watch the documentary on our stateroom TV's while we relax.

Also, an Olivia VIP reports that Billie Jean has just published a new book. I don't know the name of the book--will check it in a few minutes--but those interested might want to bring a copy along to have autographed. I'm pretty sure (but not certain) that copies of the book will be available in the shipboard store, but they could run short . . . .

 

OKPoet2007 You sure have a way with words. I can't believe all the things your generation has seen. It's so amazing. I hope I have half the spitfire you do when I'm 72. Thanks for the reminder that it hasn't always been easy being a woman in the country. Thanks God there are people who will stand up and be counted.

Thanks,

Rhonda

Fifty? FIFTY?  Oh, to be fifty again!

When I first heard of Billie Jean, she was Billie Jean Moffitt, and already making headlines. My high school girls' basketball group (no teams then) had to play on the cement court outside in that era, because of course the boys got the good court indoors. We girls wore one-piece "fruit loop" PE suits, blue with elastic around the legs; we were allowed two dribbles, and could play only a half -court game. Too much running would make our ovaries fall out or some such nonsense.

Billie Jean changed everything. The women's game--well, it was like going from black and white movies to Technicolor. I remember that when Billie Jean first came on the scene, I wasn't out, even to myself. I sometimes say I came out so late it was a posthumous act. When Billie Jean she put little Bobby Riggs in his place, I had a suspicion about myself, but had never mentioned it to anyone. I was over 40 before I said the L-word aloud.

Then along came Martina. Everybody was saying the L-word then. I saw Martina play soon after she came to the US. She had gotten a bit chubby because she loved American hamburgers so much. But then Nancy Leiberman got hold of Martina (so to speak) and taught her discipline. Soon those chubby thighs were gone. Because Martina was so good, Chris Everett had to crank up her game--and she sure did. People  began saying women's tennis was more interesting than men's. And they were right. There was Steffi, Aranxia, Martina Jr.  Then we began hearing about a girl not yet in her teens, a child named Venus. And when we finally got to see her play--WHOO-ee! And before long, her younger sister, Serena, came along. Last weekend, Serena--who is so beautiful I have a very hard time concentrating on the score--won the U.S. Open--played at the USTA BILLIE JEAN KING NATIONAL TENNIS CENTER. 

There is a long list of splendid women in tennis, but the whole history began with Billie Jean.  She was not the first great woman tennis player, but she WAS the one who whacked the public alongside the head and helped them see the vision of what women's tennis could be. She helped all of us be proud of who we were. At 50, I was still in the closet. (A glass closet, to be sure. It is for most of us. ) Now, at 72, I hold hands with my sweetheart in church, and lecture all my doctors about their need for another line to add to the standard "single-married-widowed-divorced" options on their patient health records. And after the last Olivia cruise, while we waited for a cab in the lobby of our hotel, a middle-aged woman with a deep-Texas accent began making conversation. Eventually, she asked us what kind of cruise we were on that was all WOMEN? And my dear one, also from Texas a while back, just chatted right back and told her we had been a group of 1800 lesbians.  Mrs. Tex didn't blink, just smiled and looked interested.

No, my love and I aren't getting married either. We figure we ARE married. But someday, if they finally grant us our rights, so we can share health insurance and adopt children, and all the other legal prerogatives, we'll be at the head of the line. (Okay, so we'll adopt GRANDchildren.) And we'll remember to  be grateful to all the good women and men who have fought the brave fight for our rights. Including BILLIE JEAN KING.

 

Hey Oregon1, I'm with you on the significance of the Battle of the Sexes match.  I was 12 when it happened, and it was HUGE for me.  It made me feel like women could do absolutely anything - accomplish any goal they wanted, be anything, do anything.  I too remember it like it was yesterday, and I can't wait to see BJK.

Thanks for sharing your story. My story, which tells you I am a bit older than you, is about the night Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs, in a match for the ages!  I remember it like it  was yesterday. I was house sitting for a neighbor and had the whole house and the television to myself.  I remember how Bobby Riggs was so arrogant, and acted like he was going to beat this "girl" easily. Well, my childhood idol, a great woman tennis player and a spokesperson for girls and women in sport, let him have it, and in winning the match, won my heart!

nice story.. I've never met, or really ever heard of BJK until this cruise... I've brushed up on some of her work....

Turning 50 wont be so bad for you, you'll be with all of us and your partner!  ...it will be great.

At my partner's prodding, I'm sharing my blog from today, after some edits.

Born Too Soon?

When I was about 6, I remember my parents talking about this Cassius Clay dude; my dad watched a lot of boxing. I always thought boxing was the ultimate sport; I used to shadow box in my room until I was about 14. I wanted to be a boxer but of course, girls couldn't box. Look at female boxing now.

When I was about 8, I asked my mom if I could sign up for little league, and of course the answer was no because back then, girls weren't allowed. I was fortunate that my mom started a softball league with a bunch of other parents, so I was more fortunate than many girls in the late 1960s/early 1970s (pre-title IX, dontcha know). Look at girls playing baseball now.

I admired athletes such as Joan Joyce (softball), Billie Jean King (tennis), and Jane Frederick (heptathlon). Female sports role models were difficult to find, but I somehow managed to find them. There was something about Jane I seemed to like a bit more, but I didn't know what it was at the time, LOL.

When BJK and her World Team Tennis Philadelphia Freedom came to Pittsburgh in the early 1970s, I asked my dad to take me to see them play. He responded something to the effect of, "I'm not taking you to see that dyke." I wasn't really sure what that meant, but knew it must be something really bad.

Fast forward some 30 years. I'm turning 50 this year, and I'm not thrilled about it. It's not the number per se. (Okay, maybe it is the number.) It's more about the realization that there's so much more I want to do, and it seems likely that some things on my "things I want to do before I die" list are just not going to happen. But I digress.

In the fall of 2007 I became aware of a "Women and Sports" cruise in October of this year featuring my childhood hero, Billie Jean King. My aforementioned BD is in October. Kismet! Did I mention it's an Olivia cruise? I frankly never thought I could afford an Olivia cruise, but I decided to call.

I could afford it! I booked that day. This was enough of a BD gift.

Fast forward again. California, the state of my birth, decides to make it legal for non-resident gays and lesbians to marry. We're going to be in Cali in October. So now the cruise has gone from sailing with Billie Jean King (who is not my lover but not just a girl) so as to not be depressed on my 50th birthday to we go on a bunnymoon cruise.

So what does this have to do with boxing and baseball, you may ask?

Again, I realize, I was born a bit too soon.

I believe in 20 or 30 years, whether a couple such as my partner and I choose to marry will be of no consequence to anyone except that couple's immediate family and friends. I am sad that we are not at that point. My partner is not out to her family at all. Her only sibling belongs to a very fundamentalist congregation; she's not sure her only child would care, but it is not worth the risk.

Can we really marry and think that would have no consequence should she pass away before I do with her family being officially clueless about the true nature of our relationship? I think not.

So perhaps it will be "only" a we cruise so I won't be depressed about turning 50 cruise. If I get to meet Billie Jean King, who I must reiterate is not my lover, but is not just a girl, that is more than the consolation prize.