Betsy Anne Bamberger Lesser, Interviews with Jews in Utah, Accn 998

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Betsy Bamberger Lesser 1-27-83 p.6 during the Rowland Hall years , I studied languages. I was very much interested in French. Very much interested. I studied Latin. And as I said, loved history. And. They were hard years for me. I was quite a loner. Not because I was Jewish. There was no problem with that . But I h.J.d a difficult time. I was quite alone. L Did the clash with your p~rents come as a result -- out of something you w~nt~ to be or is that the way you were acting? BL No. It was just , I think it was j ust the way things were. I think it was part of the personality that I -- it was very difficult being an individual. Because my mother wanted complete control over me. And I tried to be my own person. I eventually broke away pretty much and had a hard time. L You mean you left the community. BL Well, of course I left the community to go away to college. But it was very difficult because my mother a nd father really did try to keep me home. L What did they want you to be? BL I don't really know. I don't really know what they wanted me to be. It was very hard to know. All-whatever it wa s, whatever I tried to do -- I think my mother wanted me to stay in the community and b e sociable or social. And just be a club woman or thut sort of thi ng and I recJ.lly couldn't. She didn't want me to be ... L What is a club woman. BL Well, somebody who would just go to the various tea parties and go to luncheons and ~~~ in Salt Lake and be part of social life. L Could you do that all day. BL Well,that 's what she did a good deal of the time. That's what she did. L So it's possible to set your life up so you didn't h ave -- BL Well, it wo uld be possible for her,but it certainly wouldn't have been for me. And I was very much interested. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but anything academic I tried to do, she made it very difficult. She told me if! were too smart, I would never find a husband. L Yes, I heard that one. BL So, I wanted very badly to go to Smith college. I was one of the validictorians in my class and I wanted to go. but it was set up that the time thecollege board! were to take place, a trip was planned with the family and I wouldhavebeen left alone , at home, studying . So they planned a really wonderful, exciting trip to the eastern United St~tcs and everything at the time I would have had to take the college boards. So I was told I would miss the trip and I would have to stay home and study the college boards all by myself. And that was too much to--I just couldn't hanule it. So I g ,·we in and I went to Mills College and I • -· - - · - .:I- ..., , _ - - -- - ~ ,