Thoughts from the Publisher

by Neena Strichart

When folks learn that I became a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) nearly 40 years ago, most react with surprise. I’m not really sure why, but I suppose it is because the stereotypical DAR member is, as far as many people are concerned, an elderly and prudish woman, donning a flowery hat and white gloves, who eats tea sandwiches and brags about her fancy heritage.
Well, I am here to inform you that those stereotypical attributes couldn’t be any further from the truth. We are women as young as 18 years of age, who are anything but prudish, are quite fashion-forward, have been known to have healthy appetites and are, as a group, not braggarts— but are proud to say we are DARs.
In order to qualify for membership, we have to be able to prove that we have at least one ancestor who fought in or participated in the American Revolution (yes, on the U.S. side). Most of us are very interested in genealogy, which of course is how we prove our lineage in order to be accepted into DAR. However, if one has a blood relative who is already a member of the organization, the process is much easier to maneuver.
My chapter, the Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Chapter, was founded in 1954, and to celebrate the 60th anniversary, we gals gathered a couple of weeks ago on Feb. 22 for a great luncheon party at the Petroleum Club. Attendees included some longtime members as well as brand-new ones who were sworn in on the spot!

The ladies who planned the event did a great job with the PowerPoint presentation featuring pictures of the group’s happenings over the last 60 years. It was fun to see vintage photos of Mom and myself doing our DAR “stuff” as a twosome. There were also many old chapter scrapbooks that held yellowing newspaper clippings of SBA announcements of years gone by. I got a real kick out of seeing the pictures of the older membership way-back-when. Yes, they were actually sporting those hats and gloves I mentioned earlier. These days most of us dress rather casually and wear slacks and blouses to meetings. No more girdles or pantyhose for us! Even my mother, Marjorie Grommé, who at 94 years of age is a 50-year member of SBA, stopped wearing her finery to meetings years ago.
SBA was organized Feb. 21, 1954, to be exact, taking place near the end of the McCarthy era. Upon organization, our chapter’s founders decided that we should meet in the early afternoon of the third Sunday of each month. Although most other chapters met during the week, our group consisted mostly of working women at the time, so Sundays just made more sense. To this day, we still hold to those arrangements.

If you are interested in checking us out, or seeing if you may qualify for membership, please visit our website susanbanthony.californiadar.org or contact the chapter by email at sba.ca.dar@gmail.com .