Day 91 - am I an April Fool?

Today is the 7th day of the 13th week, the 1st day of the 4th month, the 91st day of 2023, and:

• Assyrian New Year
• Boomer Bonus Day
• Every Day is Tag Day
• Fossil Fools Day [well that's not a polite way to single out elders!]
• International Edible Book Festival
• International Firewalk Day
• International Fun at Work Day [glad I'm off]
• International Pillow Fight Day
• International Tatting Day
• Library Snap Shot Day
• Lupus Alert Day
• Myles Day
• National Atheist's Day
• National DIY Day
• National Fun Day
• National Hand Made Day
• National Jump in Muddy Puddles Day [the weather hereabouts is warm and wet - perfect day to celebrate.  Of course, having grandkids, I immediately thought of Peppa Pig, since that is one of her fav things to do]
• National Love Our Children Day
• National One Cent Day
• National Play Outside Day
• National Sourdough Bread Day [grabs the frozen bread out of the freezer and bakes it]
• National Trombone Players Day
• Poetry and the Creative Mind Day
• Reading is Funny Day
• Sorry Charle Day
• St. Stupid's Day
• Take Down Tobacco Day
• Take Your Parents to the Playground Day
• Tangible Karma Day
• Time Warp Day - a festival of electronic music
• US Air Force Academy Day

Quote of the day: 
"Here cometh April, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever."

~ Charles Lamb, English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his essays

I subscribed to Credit Karma years ago, because I wanted to track changes in my credit score across multiple credit bureau reporting agencies - as a former consumer lender, I am hyperconscious of how your credit score impacts your borrowing abilities, and they send you regular emails, notifying you of changes, so you can be alerted for any unusual inquiries or activities.  Today part of the email contained this snippet:

So why at 73, is my oldest account only 22 years old?  After all, I have been paying my own bills since I was 18!

The long and short of it?  I am a woman.  And in the 55 years since being considered an adult, the only thing that would show on my credit was report would be co-ownership of a home for 10 years with my ex-husband, which was sold when we divorced in 1986.  A stay-at-home mom after graduating from college, I had only an erratic part-time income and could not get credit in my own name.  Not that a woman could get credit easily in those days!  Single women often had to have a parent co-sign car loans or apartment leases; married women had to have their husband on the account.  Back then, lenders were also convinced that any woman of child-bearing years were a poor risk because it was felt they would stop working if they got pregnant.   And very few women owned their own homes which made it more difficult as renters are not considered good credit risks due to their perceived ability to pack up and move without a moments notice.  [This is true even now, incidentally, even for long-term renters like me] 

When I became formally separated in 1985,  and went to work full-time, JC Penny's sent me an unsolicited credit card on my own name, with the accompanying letter saying they had noticed I had a previous joint account with my ex that had been handled as agreed, and they believed in me.  It was a very smart move on their part - for years I made a point of shopping at their store, ordering through their catalog, and ordering online, always using that credit card.  Finally, my purchases tapered off as Penny's tastes diverged, and they ended up closing the card for non-use.  The accounts will still show on your credit report if you pull it, but aren't considered in the credit score calculations after a period of time unless it was charged off instead of closed.

Atho in 1974 Congress passed The Equal Credit Opportunity Act [cosponsored by 9 Democrats and 11 Republicans] by an overwhelming majority it it took quite a while to overcome that deeply ingrained bias against women in lending decisions.  Regulations finally accomplished the task, but even when I started at Commercial & Farmers Bank back in 1987, the financial services industry was still struggling on how to implement it, pushed by the expanding Reg B that governs all lending practices.  For example, I was actively lending back in the 1990's and I remember vividly when the ruling came down that lenders couldn't automatically require the wife to guarantee a loan that was collateralized with an IDOT just because the property was jointly owned. 

Score one for the baby boomer feminists! Our daughters and their daughters will never have to deal with the same issues we had being totally dependent on their husband for sustenance and their future.  They may choose to do so, but they now have a choice.

Oh and to answer the question asked in the title?  No I am not.  I had enough sense to be born the day after April Fools, altho my mother went into labor on this day 73 years ago, and I was born on Palm Sunday.

Never quite felt like I lived up to that....