segmentedcat

Whatever happened to Rita and Runt? As a kid, their bits were my favorites, and Rita's solos introduced me to a lot of new music, but as the show went on they seemed to disappear.

My mom was divorced by age 16 and back living with her parents. Her husband ran her over with a car and then got caught cheating on her while she was in the hospital recovering. She met my dad two years later and married him - by choice - when she was 19.

My cousin was forced into marriage because she was pregnant, so she had the baby shortly after the wedding. She then had another within a year, and a third a year later. She finally got the doctors to perform a tubal after that delivery. The marriage was extremely unhappy and abusive, but she was also very financially dependent on her husband. She wound up staying with him until the oldest child got into high school, and with the extra free time with older kids she started taking night classes. She was able to get a decent job for the first time after finishing her degree two years later, and got a divorce. She's just now getting to have her own life, with her own house and all three of her kids grown. Her ex had to move back in with his mom.

we've all heard of stories of great-parents or great-grand parents who married who they were told to marry...

In my case, I've got stories from both my mom (forced into marriage at 15) and one of my cousins (who was 18), which took place within the past 50 years, in the southern US.

Totally agree, after growing up in that environment, it's a big pet peeve for me when I see folks online acting like this is a non-white problem, or a non-American problem, or a non-Christian problem, or even a fringe Christian problem.

My family was not part of a weird ultra-conservative religious sect, they're fucking Lutheran, and I bet if my cousin's youngest got into a similar situation today my extended family would advocate marrying her off the same way.

Interesting, because I'm seeing the opposite. My parents are Republicans and two of my best friends back home are Republican-leaning Libertarians, and all 4 have said they're voting for Bernie if he gets the nod, but if it's Hilary they'll vote Republican.