When I was born, Mom said I looked like an Indian Papoose. I had jet black hair, and lots of it, I wasn't pink like most new babies, I had dark skin, I guess that was why she thought I looked like an Indian. My eyes were so dark brown you could not see the pupils. I was small - in fact I wore "0" size shoes when I was one year old. I was still wearing infant dresses. I walked when I was 10 months old. Mom said when she set me down and I walked all around people thought I was a midget. Well I guess she was worried that I might be because she took me to the Doctor to have me checked on. She was worried for nothing.
I was under sized all through school. Finding shoes seemed to be the biggest problem for a long time. I don't know if that is why I am a shoe nut now or not. When I was graduating from Jr. High School, every girl in the class was getting her first pair of high heels. With normal feet that was not a problem. For me it was awful. Mom took me to Los Angeles where they sold shoes for the Chinese women who had their feet bound when they were children. Naturally those were too small and the regular shoe stores couldn't fit me. We nearly walked our legs off looking. We finally found a pair, but they were terrible. Didn't have any choice. It was a pair of brown fabric with snake skin trim. Well they did have the toe out, but they were the worse pair of shoes I have ever seen. We hadn't bought my graduation dress, so we had to find something that wouldn't make the shoes stand out too much. We settled on a red two piece suit. I didn't really care for the suit either. One would have to say my Jr High Graduation wasn't the happiest time of my life.
Then again I don't think I fared all that well when I graduated from High School. I was only wearing a size 1 shoe. Still no high heels. I had to settle for a pair of black suede closed toed sling flats. It was horrible. I was one of the shortest girls in the class of 96 and I had to wear FLATS!
I had a black suit with a lovely white blouse. Mom, Dad, Uncle Bill and Aunt Clara took me to a Night Club after Graduation. My first time in a Night Club. The floor show was Pinky Lee. I know that doesn't mean anything these days. He was a left over from the Vaudeville Days. At least the show was clean. We had a wonderful dinner before the Floor Show then there was dancing, but I didn't have a date, so we left fairly early.
So far as math goes, I am a dunce. When I went into High School Ronald told me the best thing to do was get all the required courses out of the way. I did that by taking Art/Music Appreciation as my Elective as a Freshman. That was 10 weeks in a class where you learned all about Art and how to appreciate the good from the bad. It was a great class, and I enjoyed it very much. The second ten weeks we listened to various kinds of music and learned about what instruments we were hearing, and how they effected the overall listening experience. I loved this class as well.
Because I was so poor in math, I decided to take Business Classes and let the machines do the work. That worked well, until I was a Junior. I had to have at least one Math Class to graduate, so I took Basic Math. The teacher was a big guy named Mr. Brewster. He had been a coach for Football at one time, so that might give you some kind of an idea about his size. He worked with me all semester. I am afraid nothing could help. When we got to the end of the second 10 weeks he came over to my desk and said: "Charmaine, I have never had a student in class who has worked any harder than you have. However, you just haven't progressed enough for me to give you a grade fitting your work. You are really doing "F" work, but I realize failing you would only mean you would have to take the class over again, and I don't feel that would do any good. I have therefore decided to give you a "D-". I know it is bringing your GPA down, but it is all I can do." I thanked him for not putting me through that torture all over again. It was sad because both my Brothers were "A" students in all their math classes.
Then all my Required Classes were behind me so when I got to my Senior year, and the War still going, I was able to get a "work permit" which meant I could go to school half a day and work half a day. With all the Business Classes I had taken, I was able to get good paying jobs, which helped me in being placed in a top job after I had graduated.
Lest you think I was stupid. I took every Machine Class they offered. I learned the Bookkeeping Machines, Calculators and of course my favorite the Comptometer. They don't have them anymore. When the ten key adding machine came into being, the Comptometers went out of business. While I was in these classes I had a teacher Mrs. Lord. She was great. I would stay after school to learn more things. She came to me one day for a talk. She told me I was one of the slowest learners she had ever had in class. It took her twice the time to get into my thick head what the other students would grasp quickly. The only difference in them and me was when I "got it", I retained it. She could come back a month later and I would still know how to do it, while the rest of her students would have to be shown over again. I don't know if that meant I was handicapped in some way or not. Back when I was a kid they never considered you
with some sort of a learning disability. You either got it, or you didn't. They never stopped to worry about you unless you caused trouble, and that was never in my nature. I struggled, but I hung in there.
When I graduated Mrs Lord had made arrangements for me to take a job at Owens-Illinois Glass where I met Jay. I could do anything on a machine. When I was working for the Part Time Agencies they sent me to an Envelope Company to work out their bonus figures. When I got there they only had ten key adding machines. I had never worked with one before. To top it off the work was on strips about 8 inches wide but only 1/2 inch deep. They were in stacks and there were thousands of them. First I had to master the machine, which I would say took me about 4 hours. The strips with the figures I had to calculate, were something else. Talk about paper cuts. Well they gave me a small office to my self. I slowly worked out a system of my own on how to handle the slips and get the totals they needed. I was so fast at it they didn't trust me so they had another employee spot check my work. She couldn't find any errors. What they thought would take months to bring to completion I was able to do in about 6 weeks. They hired me. That pretty well tells what happened a number of times.
I took a course at El Rancho High School to be a Switch Board Operator. That was something I
knew would come in handy. It did when I worked for Ravier Ware some months later. They had a small switch board that connected two of their warehouses with the main office. I enjoyed relieving on the Switch Board. They are a thing of the past now, but were pretty common place back in those "good old days".
When ever I had a job, I was a dedicated employee. I'd stay busy, and have great concentration.
I can do most anything, if you show me. I have never been able to work out a pattern or read direction and figure out how it is to be done. Another of my "handicapps". If you show me, and let me work it out while you watch, I can usually pick it up quickly, then work out my own system for doing the work. I have always been fast when I work. I believe that is due to the deep concentration I have. I don't like noise around me. If I get started and am into what I am doing, the noise doesn't usually bother me, but I need quiet to get into the job.
These are just a few of things that I thought might be of interest. You can decide if I was right.
Written this 11th day of June 2009
by Eileen Rosenberg
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