One day I asked Grandma to think back when she was young - how would she have answered the question "what do you want to be when you grow up?"
I would have said both a receptionist or secretary and a wife and mother. When in Junior High after working
on the farm for quite a while, Dad asked whether I wanted a bicycle or a
typewriter. It was one of the hardest
decisions of my life at that time. I
really wanted a bike to ride, but I also wanted a typewriter. I chose the typewriter so Cleo got the
bike. Luckily she was quite generous
with the bike. I was generous with the
typewriter, but she didn’t care to much about it.
In high school I got straight A’s
in Typing class. I really loved that
class. After I graduated the war was on
and so I decided to get a job. They were
hiring down at Camp Williams Army Base. To be considered for the positions you had to
take Civil Service Exam. Most people
took this test while in college, but since I didn’t go to college I just went
right down to the base and took the exam there.
I passed and was hired by the Quartermaster and was put in charge of all
the officer’s clothing and everything that the men would need to buy, nothing
was issued to them at this point in the war.
I sat across the desk from a nice blond officer who smoked. I worked there for about two years. They decided to close Camp Williams when the
war began to escalate. I stayed on to
help close out the books and then had to look for another job. At that point the steel plant was in
production to help with the war. I was hired and was the only woman in the
entire building. I was a secretary in
the maintenance building for the foreman.
And then that building filled up with girls in offices.
When the war started ending, more and
more girls went on to find other work and that left me once again to close up the books. I was
then transferred to Columbia Steel where they were closing out all the records
there. After that building closed, I was
transferred to the main administration building for the steel plant that had
since changed it’s name to Geneva Steel when the war was over. I was asked to be the receptionist at the
main entrance.
About that time I met and
got engaged to Gordon and told them I’d be leaving. My boss said, “Oh you just go on your
honeymoon and then come back.” I kept
trying to tell him that we decided that I wouldn’t work once I was
married. He was quite disappointed and
even offered a few months off for my honeymoon but then when he realized I was
serious he just wrote in large red letters across my file “WILL HIRE AT ANY
TIME” but I never went back to work there because I was married and then became
a mother. So I got to do exactly what I
always wanted to do in both areas.
