A Real Job

I did have a real, full-time job a few times in my life. While Larry was in the Navy during the Vietnam War, we lived in Miami for a year. Since he made a grand total of $75 a month, I had to get a job. We arrived in Miami, rented an apartment, and had enough to live on for about 30 days. If I couldn't find something, I had to move back with Momma and Daddy. Oh my.

I checked the Want Ads and found an opening for a secretary in the Boy Scout Office in Coral Gables. I drove up for an interview and knew I would not get the job. Driving home on the interstate, I spotted the exit for University of Miami. I took the exit. Found the personnel office, was sent to the Bursar's Office and was hired as a Restricted Loans Clerk. Before I got in the car to drive home I stopped in the campus bookstore and bought the Cliff Notes (no Dummies books yet) for Accounting.

I found out later my boss had gone through about 5 clerks in 5 months. They decided since I was a Navy wife I had to have the money and would not quit. They knew up front I was only there for a year; guess they figured 12 months with one clerk was a good thing.

He was not such a bad boss.  He was an older gentleman and I think I reminded him of his daughter.  He did throw pencils and pens at people, but not at me.  I was pretty much given free rein to organize my job as I wished.  Computers were just starting up and we had a mainframe that I spent a year trying to reconcile that monthly readout with the account cards in my file.  Fun times.  I finally did it by the end of the year and they decided to merge my loans with the Student Loans and all that work went for nothing!

I dealt with a lot of Spanish speaking students from Cuba who were behind in their loan repayments.  They would come to the window and pretend to not be able to speak English.  Ha.  Two of the girls in the office were from Cuba...I would just signal one of them and the Spanish would start flying.  I loved it!!!

(Note:  I did later get a job offer from the Boy Scout Office; it was for another position there)