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Promoting |
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Table of Contents |
Promoting |
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Some of my best jobs... When I was going to grammar school and high school I always dreamed about working in an office. Now, I worked at the box factory and I worked at Spiegels catalog outlet. So when it was getting close to my graduation (1948) I thought, well, I'll go to the unemployment office. I really wanted to get a job working downtown in an office but my mother said to get a job closer so that's what I did. I told them I wanted a job that started at 8:30 am and one that I could walk to. And they had one! So anyway it was for the Illinois Veterans Commission. So I go to the interview, it was in South Chicago, right across the street from Goldblatts department store. I walk in (it's before I'm out of high school and I have no office experience) and there's an Army recruiter, Navy recruiter, Marine recruiter and Air Force recruiter there. They each had a desk. So I went up to the Navy recruiter and told him who I was and that I was graduating from high school soon and the first thing he asked me was: Are you married? I said "No, I am just getting out of high school. " So he told me that the person who would be my boss would not be in until tomorrow so I came back. I dressed up in a suit and high heels. I met the person who would be my boss and his first question was: "Are you married?" And I said: "No." He said: "Are you engaged? Are you going steady?" I said: "No." He said: "You got the job." I said: "What?" Well I found out later the reason why he asked these questions was because he had three secretaries before me: one was married and became pregnant and left. The next one was engaged and left to get married.
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The last one was going steady and became engaged and left. So he definately wanted a girl that would stay. I got the job because I wasn't married or engaged or going steady! And he was a very good boss, a very nice guy. Well, I get this job and I had no experience with any guys (I wasn't allowed to date until I was eighteen years old!) So I come home and tell my family I got this job. Well, oh my God! I was the first of my father's children to get an office job! Everybody else worked at the box factory or cleaning houses and now I got this office job! So I run in and tell my grandma, aunt and everybody. But my mother is all upset now because I'm going to work with all men. She said: "Couldn't you get a job where there were girls?" I was going to be the only girl with 5 men and she was worried. But these 5 men treated me like their own daughter. Anyway my ma would show up at my job periodically just to make her presence known to the guys at the office. For holidays my mother would make sausage and saurkraut for these guys. They ended up looking out for me. I was just like their little sister. And that was my first job and I was so proud to work in an office! I worked five years in the office job. Anyway I decided that I wanted to do something more exciting so I got a job as an airline stewardess for a Texas commuter airline for about a year and a half (I was 24 years old).  |
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Then there's the story
about how I decided to
Later, in 1955 I was sitting on a bus and saw an advertisement that said "Be a Nurse." And something struck me. And I'm thinking, I always wanted to be a nurse. I remember thinking about it when I was little. I called South Chicago hospital about getting into their fall classes. They were full so I wrote letters to other hospitals in the area. The first week in July I got a phone call from a Sister Dorothy at St. Anthony's Hospital. So Sister Dorothy sent me an application and asked for my high school transcripts (you had to be in the upper 10% of your graduating class). And she needed a letter from the pastor (because you needed to be Catholic). And I needed to take an aptitude test. I took that at Cook County Hospital. I never even saw St. Anthony's at that point but everything was in order and I passed the aptitude test so I was enrolled at St. Anthony's for the start of the fall classes. I went in and I thought about quitting several times. After all, I was older and used to being independent. Now I had the nuns. Getting us up every morning. Prayers every night. I thought I was in the convent. There were 35 girls that started. Only 18 graduated and I was one of them. And everybody that took state boards passed. I was twenty-eight years old. The hard part was that they didn't allow anyone to be married in nurses training (you could only get married 3 months before graduation) and I met my husband. I kept saying let's wait to get married and he kept saying no, we've got to get married, we've got to (he wanted to get married 3 weeks after we met). And so we got married on my vacation from school. Now, I could've quit or I could've kept it undercover. I decided to keep it a secret. Noone could know. I was able to see my husband on the weekends. Then I got pregnant and had to wear a girdle to keep the pregnancy hidden. I was sick in the morning and had to mask it. My whole family knew. When I was home I wore my wedding band, when I was at the school dorm I didn't. I answered by my married name at home, by my maiden name at school. I lived a double life. And I had to have the baby. So anyway I had about one month left of school that I would have to attend before my graduation in the fall so I asked my local doctor to write an excuse for me to not have to go back to school until graduation---and he did! So I was able to have the baby and went back to school, on duty, 17 days after he was born. They never knew. I boarded my son weekly until I graduated. On Graduation day I told my best girlfriend Pauline about what happened. I told her I was married while I was in training. She said they all kind've figured that but didn't want to say anything. Then I had my son in a crib upstairs and I took her upstairs. I said, "Now I want to tell you one more thing, I want you to see my son." She said "I see this but I don't believe it!" I said "Hey, I can keep a secret!" I've been a Registered Nurse now for almost 45 years. ---Dorothy, Chicago |
