So what's with the name?
If you tour the Gamble House in Pasadena, a lovingly preserved specimen of Craftsman architectural design, the guide eventually will lead you up the main staircase, pause to admire the exposed interlocking joinery, and recite a monologue about how good it was to be Aunt Julia. Julia Huggins was the unmarried younger sister of Mary Huggins Gamble, wife of David Gamble (as in Procter & Gamble). Mary and David commissioned the home in 1908 as their winter retirement getaway, and Julia, who joined the couple in California, had the best room in the house.
Located at the rear of the second floor family quarters, Julia's suite is large and bright with custom furniture and a private sleeping porch that, at the time, would have overlooked endless acres of orange groves. David Gamble died in 1923, followed by Mary in 1929, but the Gamble children allowed their Aunt Julia to remain undisturbed in the home, a happy squatter in this SoCal paradise, until her own death nearly 15 years later.
Over time, I misremembered Aunt Julia as Aunt Jane, no doubt comingling her in my mind with "plain Jane," a phrase that has described mostly single—and presumably undesirable—women for generations. I don't know anything about Julia Huggins beyond what I've shared. She may have been the life of the party, but the schtick on the tour is based on the idea that she was the absolute last thing a person would ever want to be—an unmarried, childless woman!—who hit the jackpot by having a sister who married well enough for both of them. The concept of it being so very good to be Aunt Julia stuck with me, not for the intended element of surprise over the fact that life could turn out so well for a spinster, rather because I found it so unsurprising.
Unmarried women have come a long way since relying on the generosity of our espoused siblings. Today, at least in Westernized countries, we very likely work and earn our own income, have our own household, manage investments, pay taxes, travel, vote, change the flapper in the toilet tank when needed (thank you, YouTube), and eat popcorn for dinner whenever we feel like it. Is life perfect? No. There are awkward moments and challenges, many of which will be covered in this blog. Overall, however, it is good to be Jane (aka Julia). Most of the time it's pretty great.
