Character Bio: Martha

Martha Jameson

Enters college in 1969, so she was born in 1951 in a suburb of ?????I still haven't decided. Martha is an observer. She is not one to take many chances. She is a follower of a group of dynamic teens. She likes to surround herself with lots of colorful, intense personalities. Not the most popular girls. The most popular girls are just not interesting enough for Martha.

Martha is fiercely loyal to her friends. It hurts her very much when some of them move on. Yet, Martha is not the type to make the first move when things go quiet. As a result, she finds herself left out for a while until a crisis hits one of her original band of merry women.

As a teen, Martha, an only child, is given every advantage her small town parents can provide. They aren't rich, but they make sacrifices so that Martha can end up in college some day. She takes piano lessons. She took dance for years, but now, as a high-school student, it's not so important.

Martha is involved in student government, but she never runs for office. That would be too gutsy for our protagonist.

The thing that keeps Martha out of trouble in her teens is the strong vision for her future. Martha knows that most of her peers will not go on to college. Most of them will end up being married and remain in Small Town. Martha has dreams of doing more. She wants to move to a bigger city. She wants to have her own apartment, her own job and her own bank accounts. Martha's friends respect her seriousness, but pick on her for it at the same time.

Martha's high school is very small. In fact, there is only one elementary school in Small Town, one middle school, and one high school. Her graduating class is 27. They started in high school with 35, but 8 didn't make it through. Graduation from high school in Small Town doesn't guarantee a job either. Some of the jocks barely met the already low academic requirements. But they were ensured good jobs on graduation because of their charisma and the connections they were able to make with local businessmen in their high school years. The girls on the other hand, were able to do very little with their lives. A few married service men from nearby ???. That might be marriage in another form, but at least they got out of Small Town. Most of Martha's class was married within a year of graduation.

They were trying to battle a tough time though. Women were beginning to develop their own opinions and divorce was becoming more common.