A Woman's Place

The RetroWrite challenge over at http://www.warningthestars.com/  is to write a poem or story about this photo.  Here's my "take":  




         A WOMAN'S PLACE

Summer lay on the land in a suffocating blanket of humidity.  Leaves clung listlessly to their branches, scarcely moving in the dense air, and the sun shone relentlessly on lawns so thirsty they crunched underfoot.  Even the birds seemed unable to summon the energy to sing; and all was quiet on Maple Street, except for the hum of the laboring air conditioners.  In the tidy Cape Cod at 1423 Maple, Carolyn Adams tied on a fresh apron and looked out her kitchen window.  Joe would be home from work any time now.  She poured sweet tea over the tall glass of ice he expected when he arrived home from work.  For a moment she thought about the time before marriage when she was working, and the excitement of feeling useful and alive.  As she reminisced, she saw Joe’s car pulling into the driveway.  Sighing, she went to the door to greet him with a smile.  It was, after all, 1952, and a woman’s place was in the home.