You can take a woman out of the 1950s, but she'll still have a cabinet full of tupperware (even if they were wedding gifts) and a husband who wants dinner. At any given spouse club meeting, there are anywhere from five to 20 or more females present. Put that many women with tupperware in a room together, and someone is bound to volunteer to make egg salad for the wife who just had her first baby. Yes, even the woman who not five hours earlier was wearing a suit jacket and earning her own paycheck will find herself feeling panicked if she's not on the list to bring dinner to the new family. She may not even make dinner for her own family, but there is something about a circle of women, all with husbands waiting at home, that makes even the most domestically challenged woman feel compelled to prove her worth with a pound cake (that she will buy at the grocery store but put on a cake plate so that it looks like she made it). Don’t be surprised if upon leaving a spouse club meeting, you sense that you're somehow stepping out of one dimension and into another. 

Remember in high school when you discovered that your date for Homecoming went to the dance with someone else the year before, and someone else the year before that? Remember how you felt? You will feel that same way if conversation at your spouse club meeting turns to having babies, and in particular, who delivered them. There are only so many OB/GYN’s at the military hospital. Although you’d like to believe that the birth of your precious baby was a once-in-a-lifetime event for all involved, there is a good chance that “all involved” (except you and your spouse) have had that same experience with all of your friends, too. 

WifeNo.1: Who delivered your baby [Wife No.2]?

Wife No.2: (With sparkles in her eyes) Dr. S was my doctor. He is so great. Do you know that he got me the epidural less than five minutes after I asked for it? I hardly had to wait.

Wife No.3: (frowning) Dr. S delivered my baby, too, but I missed the window for the epidural.  

Wife No.4: I had Dr. S. He was so good about getting me appointments when I needed them.

Wife No.3: (angrier now) I never got the appointment times I wanted!

Wife No.2 to Wife No.4: Isn’t Dr. S the best? All I had to do was leave a message with the nurse and Dr. S would make sure I got the appointment time that I needed.

Wife No.4: And he’s so patient.

Wife No.2: And smart...

Wife No.3: He wasn’t patient with me.

Wife No. 4 and No.2 to Wife No.3: Well maybe he didn’t like you as much as he liked us.

Wife No.4: Gosh, it all feels so cheap in a way, doesn’t it?

Spouse club meetings are filled with people from all different backgrounds, hometowns, ages and personalities. There aren't many situations where a 22-year-old newly married spouse who goes to clubs on the weekends finds friendship in a 55-year-old mother of teenagers. At first glance, you may think you'll have nothing in common with anyone in your spouse club. Because at first glance, they'll all seem very different. But the truth is, you're more alike than you realize. In time you will notice that no one -- not even your mother or best friend -- understands your life as it is right now as do the women in your spouse club. When your loved ones are on the same, ahem, boat (literally), all your differences begin to seem irrelevant. The best example of this is when the meeting adjourns and everyone heads to their cars. The hostess' driveway will be filled with minivans, two-door sports cars, pick-up trucks and cadillacs. But if someone is blocking you in, just try yelling, “Could someone with the military stickers please move their car?”