Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Typing My Way to Victory
Central Michigan University, Michigan State University (2x), University of Michigan-Flint, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2x). My college education started in 1966 and ended in 1986. I just this minute realized that my trudge through higher education consumed twenty years.
But the real question is what colleges I attended, it’s why I went to college at all.
My dad said I was going. I didn’t quarrel, having already spent several years working the candy counter and feeding the parakeets in our dime store. The summer before leaving for college I worked as a secretary for a little company selling Carbo-Lastic! a roofing sealant. It was fascinating.
My dad said I could be a teacher, nurse, or secretary. I didn’t quarrel, those did seem to be the options for women then, this wasn’t him just voicing low expectations. I could already type ‘like a bat out of hell’ but he did insist that I take a shorthand class in college.
My dad paid for three semesters of college and then told me he was driving to Mt. Pleasant (where Central Michigan University is located) to bring me home because my continued presence there was corrupting me. He was right about that, but it still seemed an overreaction.
After that sad episode, I got a job where I typed and took shorthand. “Jan, can you take a letter?” Yes, someone said that to me almost every day for a year, until I screwed up my little courage, applied to Michigan State, quit my fulltime job, and went back to school. I got a job doing the weekly bulletin at a local Lutheran Church. I typed it on a stencil that was then mimeographed. This was the single most aggravating task ever, next only to matching a plaid on a handsewn blouse.
The rest is history, many semesters, several schools. Much typing, so much typing. College then was something people could actually work their way through, pay as you go. My heart goes out to young people who have to mortgage their lives to get an education. I was lucky, but also very determined. And I ended up not being a teacher, nurse, or secretary. So there’s that.
4 Comments on “Typing My Way to Victory”
Leave a Reply
Recent Comments
 | Ellice on Surrender |
 | Nancy Bauer-King on Surrender |
 | Becky Ross Michael on Prison Town: Part Two |
 | GD on Ah. The Hard-Boiled Truth |
 | Jan Wilberg on Ah. The Hard-Boiled Truth |
Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
I got a summer job at Polaroid in the research department when I was in college. The position was Research Model. The requirements were fair hair and complexion (I could not get a tan that summer) and blue eyes. I posed for photographs a dozen or more times every day wearing a white blouse with a red vest (that they supplied) in front of a faux table setting that had bright colored plates and utensils (colors Polaroid was interested in getting right on film), The phtogrpher used various cameras (made by Polaroid) and film or subjected the film to different conditions (such as cold and heat). I loved this job, as it involved much sitting around during which time I read books. Then I was asked to type some reports. I told the boss that I did not know how to type (a lie) and he bought it!
That’s a great story!
This sparked a whole different memory for me. I never got any career advice from my college educated mom except take typing and don’t tell anyone. If they think you can type, that’s all anyone will want you to do. I followed her advice. 😏Could type enough to do my own papers in college but not well enough that I was in demand. Glad the keyboard was familiar to me.
I admire you Jan, and anyone who finds a way to go back to take college courses, finish a degree or any combination of those. I worked mostly in the dental field as my “main career” but always felt I missed a lot not experiencing college so when my youngest was in college I found an online opportunity, earned a Humanities AA degree and quickly decided I wanted more. Daughter and I ended up graduating at the same time (different schools) she with a science double major and me with a Sociology BA. Best thing I ever did.