Check My Equipment & Gross Warning

First let me say that there are photos on this post that some will find gross so DO NOT scroll down if you are squeemish. There - a fair warning. For the rest of you morbid freaks (LOL) there's dog killing lizard photos after the following rant, er eloquent turn of phrases.

I was thinking about the tee shirt worn by the VP nominee Sarah Palin and thought back to the late 70's when I was very young and working for a CASE deadership where we sold and rented heavy equipment such as backhoes, excavators, etc. For those of you too young to have been in the workplace in the late 70's you missed a lot of sexism. Jokes with double meaning, one sexual, were not a source of lawsuits at the time and women, or men, who complained found themselves labeled as not a team player or hard to get a long with. Now I realize I am generalizing because there were probably some progressive comapanies out there that realized the danger of inappropriate behavior in the work place but not in the any place where I worked.

Case in point - the owner of my company had a yachet. Every year he took the employees out in it but he took the men and women seperately. The men went on a fishing trip that left early in the morning and they were gone for the day. The women were taken on a cruise to a somewhat secluded cove for swimming and then on to dinner. The women got the afternoon off for this adventure and there was LOTS of liquor on board. The president, his brother, and I believe the male sales manager basically played bartender to the women and helped us on and off the boat. While I still appreciate the generosity involved, I do realize it was a bikinifest for the guys no doubt about it. You would have to be there to witness it to understand.

Get to the tee shirt part, Vickie! Ok, this same owner/president of the company had shirt made up for the women to wear when representing the company. We wore them on certain days of the week and if you did something extracurricular such as the bowling or basketball team. On the front of these bright yellow orange (CASE yellow) tee shirts across the breast area it said in big, bold lettering "CHECK MY EQUIPMENT". Oh, yes it did! The back, of course, listed our locations and product information. Can you imagine the response if an employer today even suggested such a thing?

Now what you have been waiting for - Eddie the Lizard Terriorist! Oh, and if you want to see sexism in the workplace in the 70's, rent the video Anchorman with Will Ferrell. It's a bit exaggerated (in my experience) but you'll get the picture and the feel of the time.