This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.

I'm Lizzy Peabody.

Every weekday morning, Maggie Kuhn was up, dressed, and out the door by 715.

She usually found herself running to catch the train from Philadelphia to New York,

her coat unbuttoned, her long gray hair whisking behind her.

On the train, she'd sit with her cohort of commuters, chatting, reading, sometimes snoozing. This was the late 60s.

There were no podcasts or noise canceling headphones.

When she reached Penn Station, she'd hustled to the subway and take the express train uptown to 96th Street.

Then she'd catch a local bus, hop off at 116th Street, and from there it was still a four-block

walk to her office.

But she'd be behind her desk, hair smoothed into a neat bun spectacles in place

by 945 in the morning, two and a half hours after leaving home.

Maggie Kuhn made this daily commute for 25 years,

and she loved it.

She loved her life.

She loved her job at the United Presbyterian Church leading the Church's public advocacy efforts.

She loved knowing that people were counting on her to show up every day, that her work mattered.

And in 1970, on the eve of her 65th birthday, her supervisor knocked on her door.

Asked if he could come in. And then...

He asked if I would retire that summer.

Maggie had never even thought about retirement,

but her supervisor insisted he was looking out for her best interests.

...