Sunday, April 16, 2006
Fate
When my friend, Floye, and I were appointed as librarians, we must have been in the eighth grade. In our little school, some things - including teachers - had to serve dual purposes, and this job was no exception. The tiny library was in the front part of the typing room where only juniors and seniors were ordinarily allowed. During the times that we were serving our fellow students with reading materials, the typewriters were usually sitting unattended, so of course we helped ourselves. I suppose the teachers knew we were trustworthy gals and would do no harm to their machines, so we had a ball playing with these new toys. I was addicted.
By my junior year, when I could officially learn the "touch typing" method, I was a speed demon at this challenging occupation, but knew I didn't want to be a secretary, mostly because of the cursed carbon paper that was a necessary part of the job. I was also exposed to the stencil machine, which was about as messy as carbon. So I chose to be a mother instead. No messes there.........
After the kids were grown and gone, I had tried my hand at a few physically demanding jobs, the type I liked best, but realized that sometime down the road I might need something a bit less strenuous. Computers were becoming the "in thing" by then, so I took a college course to learn how to use this contraption, eventually landing a job as secretary to the local highway patrol sergeant. For the first few months behind a desk, I had the feeling that eventually someone would discover I was a female impersonator and send me back to my tractor.
I was having a ball. On a computer I could type without worrying about having to erase mistakes, just backspace and fix any error before printing. The copy machine had done away with carbon paper. Ink cartridges replaced messy typewriter ribbon. The stencil machine went to a museum. Waiting for the "empty nest " time of life before becoming a secretary was one of the best decisions I ever made.
At that time I had no idea what the internet was, snail-mail was still the only way to correspond, "blog" was as foreign as the milky-way. Writing a book had never entered my mind, nor living in the mountains, nor being in movies. Which makes me wonder what in the world can happen next.
Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
By my junior year, when I could officially learn the "touch typing" method, I was a speed demon at this challenging occupation, but knew I didn't want to be a secretary, mostly because of the cursed carbon paper that was a necessary part of the job. I was also exposed to the stencil machine, which was about as messy as carbon. So I chose to be a mother instead. No messes there.........
After the kids were grown and gone, I had tried my hand at a few physically demanding jobs, the type I liked best, but realized that sometime down the road I might need something a bit less strenuous. Computers were becoming the "in thing" by then, so I took a college course to learn how to use this contraption, eventually landing a job as secretary to the local highway patrol sergeant. For the first few months behind a desk, I had the feeling that eventually someone would discover I was a female impersonator and send me back to my tractor.
I was having a ball. On a computer I could type without worrying about having to erase mistakes, just backspace and fix any error before printing. The copy machine had done away with carbon paper. Ink cartridges replaced messy typewriter ribbon. The stencil machine went to a museum. Waiting for the "empty nest " time of life before becoming a secretary was one of the best decisions I ever made.
At that time I had no idea what the internet was, snail-mail was still the only way to correspond, "blog" was as foreign as the milky-way. Writing a book had never entered my mind, nor living in the mountains, nor being in movies. Which makes me wonder what in the world can happen next.
Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
