The Highland Park Woman
(Texas High Nobility, 1976)
THE HIGHLAND PARK WOMAN is thirty-two or thirty-three. She says she honestly forgets sometimes. She’s not particularly afraid to tell her age (she’s not that old) but she seldom does. It’s not really necessary: a ten-year-old son in St. Mark’s and a seven-year-old daughter in Lamplighter, three bedrooms and three baths on one end of Beverly Drive, her station wagon, his 98. Although she isn’t young young anymore. Last summer, in Acapulco with the Frasers, she gave up her bikini. And came back and enrolled in Louise Williams’ exercise class. She like ballet better but thinks it doesn’t keep the tummy quite as flat.
Early thirties, but downright good-looking, seated in Houlihan’s and having a Bloody Mary—one Bloody Mary—with Judy and Anne. She easily passes for late twenties, although the men who eye her probably don’t demand that kind of youthfulness and girlish charm. She’s the woman they have in mind when they get back to Detroit and Denver and tell their associates about those wonderful Dallas women.
Her hair is, or was, blond, but that was a good many streakings and tintings and tippings ago. Pulled back, short, cool. Her eyes are blue or hazel according to whether or not she has on her tinted contacts. Or prescription sunglasses. Big, oval or round. She never leaves home, summer or winter, without her glasses, of course, so unless you know her very well you don’t know what color her eyes really are. Probably not even John, her husband, remembers. Her figure is much more important, and it’s still competitive. Although the Highland Park woman hates to compete, if you want to call it that. There’s something so lower middle class about competition. Dallas is full of young stewardess types. It would be foolish and wasteful at her age to compete with them. And she certainly does not consider waitresses and bar girls to be competition at any age. God forbid.
The Highland Park Woman, Texas Monthly
Someone to contrast with English or Chinese Noblewomen.
The link was found over at GetReligion, where we also get a peek at a High Noble conflict: Why did Ross Perot turn on George H.W. Bush, another rich Texan? Look for a religion ghost
Mr. Perot espoused a kind of fiscal conservatism and toward the end of his campaign a strong law-and-order theme. But he also drew cheers when he staunchly defended a woman’s right to choose an abortion and when he bashed the religious right. Indeed, in the voter survey, only 34 percent of Mr. Perot’s voters said they attended religious services at least once a week, compared with 42 percent in the survey sample as a whole.
Mr. Perot’s army seems to include a strong libertarian streak: people seeking a measure of freedom from what they perceive as the heavy hand of institutions, religious as well as governmental. If the fundamentalist right holds sway in the coming battle for the soul of the Republican Party, Perot followers could go elsewhere.
New York Times (1992)
and
Culturally speaking, Bush had sinned against the values of Highland Park. He had become, among other things, a threat to the world of Planned Parenthood — one of the key organizations that Perot and his wife Margot consistently supported in Dallas. She served, for many years, on the advisory board for the Dallas branch of Planned Parenthood.
Perot was, in other words, a classy Texan — a man with his own historic copy of the actual Magna Carta and original Normal Rockwell paintings hanging in his home. He was that self-made man who earned his Eagle Scout rank in one year and, when his father died, the 25-year-old Perot dug that grave with his own hands.
When Perot hit it big, he demanded that his business disciples follow his rules — conservative suits and short hair. He would not tolerate those who were unfaithful to their spouses. When he was in town, Perot always sat at his home dinner table with his large family and he said grace.
GetReligion, Why did Ross Perot turn on George H.W. Bush, another rich Texan? Look for a religion ghost
Things are more complicated and subtle than they seem. Back then, anyways, before the years sharpen the divide and drive more people to be more consistent in their life.
If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family–anything you like–at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren’t quite so sharp; and that there’s going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing. The whole thing is sorting itself out all the time, coming to a point, getting sharper and harder.
C. S.Lewis, That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy, Book #3)
As of writing, there are 27 years between 1992 and today (2019): things have changed.
Twenty-seven years is not all that long for a spacefarer that spends two-three months or so travelling the subsector, with a week or two between tours to spend with family at home.
So he finally makes his million credits, gets the house and neighbourhood his wife dreams of, has his passive income stream set up nicely.
And finally comes home to stay, and looks around.
And decides that he does not like what he sees.
And calls a few of his buddies, hook up with the old network, and gets to work, to change a few things around here.
ProTip: Ross Perot had a nice setup for making his wealth tax efficient: a sufficiently wealthy Traveller might want to look into it.
For the rest of us, I leave North’s intro to the article:
In 1996, a pair of researchers published their book, The Millionaire Next Door. It became a bestseller.
It deserved to be a bestseller. It is one of the best books I have ever read on how to build wealth. The secrets of building wealth are these:
1. Start your own business.
2. Be prepared to go bankrupt a couple of times.
3. Live frugally.
4. Don’t get divorced.
5. Minimize your taxes.
The book reported that 80% of millionaires in the United States are self-made. They did not inherit their money.
Built your wealth (in your head, your spirit and your bank account) like a good Christian should. Start your business.
(Starships are hard to find on TL 9 worlds, but there are other roads to wealth.)
Then, put it to work for the Kingdom of God.
Yes, you are entitled to a 90% cut of your earnings: God gets 10%. Taxes get deducted before you and God get your shares. But about those taxes….
