I WISH I HAD TAKEN NOTES….
Or even better, kept
a journal.. as there is things I
remember from over the years. But as I write them down in a book like one of my
granddaughters had be do… it just
doesn’t seem to come out right.
When some one brings up a subject.. like what did you do for work? In my days, most women were either
secretaries, or store clerks, .or teachers, or..
and then there were nurse aides..
until they got married.. Some of
them did it after they got married..
especially if they were divorced..
Better jobs came along later, as
strong women and society figured out that woman could do just about any job a
man could. Some companies hired those
women because the pay for them was about a 1/3 less than if they hired a
man. And women were so happy to finally
be looked upon as good workers.. Not
knowing until much later that they were getting paid a lot less. Then women started striking or taking it to
court.. Winning some, but not as much as
men. Society found out that woman
could do the same work as men during WWII… when the men went to war.. yet
planes, tanks and etc had to be built..
Women did it.. of course as soon
as the war was over, the women were let go. Even the women pilots were told they
were no longer needed.. And it took
until the 1990’s before there was the recognition of woman workers during the
war. Now you see occasionally a statute
of a woman pilot. War brought on women
workers.. Women following the troops
during the Civil war and taking care of the men who were shot.. was some what a
start of nurses.. Except they were
called.. camp followers.. and were not treated very well, and
let go after the war was over.
It is in the old history books.. if you can find one.. don’t know what the internet did with the
information.
I went the gambit..
Babysitting, clerk in office, waitress, ran a mom and pop ice creams
shop. He was in the Navy and she was a
navy wife with a lot of friends.. and when he was at sea, she was
partying.. so I open the place up.. and she closed it. Then several years later.. I was a helper in a car smashing business
with my husband.. burning cars to get
the copper out of it.. standing on top
of a load, so I could line up the finally car on top. Even smashed a load one time. As my husband had thoughts of over the road
driving again. Only to find out they
wanted to sell him a semi and not use his old truck. So I helped his partner smash a load of cars
while my husband was returning home.
After I took classes in becoming a nurses aide.. and did that for up to 18 years. So you see .. women have been filling in for years.. Now some are heads of companies… but there are
still some that are fighting the system of lower wages and sexual
harassment. So you see, I have done a
few things.. but some how that becomes
blah blah blah.. when some one
ask.. what did you do for work Nana…
And there really is more to that.. the cold mornings of dragging cars to the
place we smashed them.. drinking
coffee to warm up.. Kids up on the top
of old coal piles in the summer… when
they were not school age yet. The
jealousy of another metal smashing company..
how the mill where we dumped off a load and a bit later some explosive
blew up in the grinder.. and the police
grilling my husband to find out where his truck had been after he finished but
before he drove over the mt. to the grinder company near Seattle.
The chief of police making a deal to smash cars left in the
woods… finding titles or paper work so we could… How I had a side job.. thru that chief..
of being their operator of the phones for the city from Friday night to Monday
morning at 8am.
See more to the story of ..
well I was …..
