worked every angle of construction, whether it be building staircases, putting in tile, or shaping cabinets. She has worked at Coca‐Cola as a lab technician as well as a counselor for juvenile delinquents. However, the hardest job Clarice has ever done was framing garage doors. This was a job that many believed she wouldn't be able to do, seeing as most men quit because it was too strenuous. Clarice told herself she could do it and with that attitude she took the job and stuck with it. That is, until she got bored and wanted to do something else. Hearing her talk about her past so openly is inspiring. She has been clean for over thirty years and the person she used to be is merely that, a distant memory of a woman she no longer chooses to be. She laughs, telling us she loves who she is now and is living more fearlessly than she was when she was eighteen. She waves a bandaged finger in the air, telling us how she had to use panty liner as a bandage because her friends didn’t have an actual one. And the flower tattoo on her hand, the one she gave herself with India ink and a sewing needle her first time in prison, well, that only brings another smile.
Literary Journalism TAKE ONE LOOK AT CLARICE COOK‐THOREN and you can tell she is not your average senior citizen. She shows off her eccentric style by wearing multiple hoops in her ears, sunglasses, trendy outfits, and gives herself a different name everyday, including Bambi, Cornstarch, and Crisco. She lives by the saying “you can do anything you want if you really set your mind to it” and is thrilled to say at the age of 62 she feels more alive than ever. Her best advice is to live your life to the fullest and to have a finished bucket list, instead of an incomplete one. She has lived her life to the fullest and doesn’t regret a thing. Throughout Clarice’s life, she tried many different jobs including counseling juvenile delinquents, construction, and even working as a lab technician for Coca‐Cola. The toughest job she ever had was framing garage doors in her In 1990, it was estimated that only mid thirties. Clarice was one of 4% of construction workers were few women to work in construction. In 1990, it was female estimated that only 4% of construction workers were female. She applied knowing that she would be working hard all day, lifting hundreds of pounds. Her boss told her she would not be able to do it and that he had men quit the job because it was too difficult. Hearing she wouldn’t be able to do it didn’t discourage her, rather challenged her to prove everyone, including her boss wrong. Clarice’s first day at the construction site was grueling, and she immediately started to regret taking the job. She felt pain in muscles in her