Throwback Thursday - Pantsuits and my first real job

My first real job was after I graduated from Holyoke Community College.  My degree was in Medical Secretarial, which I don't think they even offer anymore.  

During my second year, one of my teachers told me that she had received a call from the Director of Medical Records of Wesson Women's Hospital.  She was looking for someone to work part time getting medical records ready for microfilming (!).  My teacher asked me if I would be interested and I jumped at the chance.  So, I quit my job as a cashier at Roberts Food Bag and started working at the hospital.  The directer, Miss Hazel French, set me up in a conference room all by myself near the Medical Records Department with a boatload of medical records which I had to go through, making sure there were no staples or paper clips in the records.  The other employees felt sorry for me, saying that it was such a boring job, but I didn't care.  It was like a foot in the door of some place I would eventually like to work at full time.  

By the time I graduated in the Spring of 1970, Miss French offered me a full time job as a medical transcriptionist.  I was working with two other transcriptionists, Karen and Barbara pictured above, who helped me a lot.  Miss French was very meticulous and treated me like I was still in school, but that was okay because I had just gotten out of school, lol!

In the Fall of 1970, we were allowed to wear pantsuits to work.  They were a new phenomenon in the work place.  Actually, the first time girls were allowed to wear pants in school was my first year at Holyoke Community, Winter 1968/69, and only because the school's main building had burned down the year before and they were holding classes in many different areas of that part of Holyoke.  They figured it was too cold for female students who had to walk to the different areas to have to wear skirts, so they announced that girls were allowed to wear pants.  Thinking about that now seems like it was back in the dark ages.  

So, when we were told that we could wear pantsuits at Wesson Women's Hospital, we were excited.  They had to be real pantsuits, though, pieces that were sold together as one item.  They couldn't just be pants and a shirt.  Basically, we all had one pantsuit and wore it once a week.  

I still have the receipt for my pantsuit; it was bought at Forbes and Wallace and cost $30.  

My only complaint with the writeup in the hospital newsletter was that they called me Miss Debbie Radtke; after all, I had been married for a couple of months!!

I really loved that job.  I stayed there until I had Kristen in 1972.  

A trigger that takes me back - Sesame Street Theme Song

*I read recently on one of the blogs that I follow, when something triggers a memory, write it down as part of your story.

We have had this VCR tape for awhile.  I'm not even sure when we got it; probably when Marley was little.

Today, when Miriam was here, she wanted to watch this.  The minute it started I realized that every time I hear the Sesame Street theme song, you know the one...Sunny day, sleeping the clouds away, it brings me back to a certain memory.

The year was 1974, winter.  Kristen was about 18 months old and I was newly pregnant.  And sick.  

Now you have to remember that this was back before children's television was on all the time; even before VCR tapes.  I think Sesame Street came on mid-morning; the perfect time for me to have a "quiet time" on the couch.  

The minute Kristen heard that theme song, she would come running from whatever she was doing.  It was so fast-paced that it would keep her attention, and I got a chance to rest!

Throwback Thursday - My old junior high and a trigger that takes me back....

*I read recently on one of the blogs that I follow, when something triggers a memory, write it down as part of your story.

Whenever I hear the Christmas carol Ring Christmas Bells, it takes me back to Junior High.  I was in the choir and our music teacher, Mr. Gardner I think his name was, had us perform that song in a Christmas Concert.  I can't remember if it was the only one we sang, but it is really the only one I remember.   I sang alto and I remember that it was pretty hard to learn that part.  Our teacher was really good though; he went over our parts until we knew it by heart.

My aunt Dot came to the concert and afterwards she told me that she thought we did a professional job on that song and that she thought our music teacher was really good.  That meant a lot to me because Dot had sung in the church choir and had also sung on the Bethany Hour, our church's radio program every Sunday morning.

My junior high school in West Springfield is now an elementary school.  In fact, it was the school that Marley went to from grades 1-5.  It was so neat for me to go back into that school.

These pictures are from an open house that I went to when Marley was in first grade.  I couldn't believe that the auditorium looked almost exactly the same.  Same platform, same seats even.  The only difference is that there is now a classroom in the back of the auditorium that makes it a little shorter.

You can be sure that when I went into this auditorium, I thought of Ring Christmas Bells.

Throwback Thursday - Me at 11 months

I found this picture in one of my Aunt Dot's photo albums.  I remember, as a kid, going through family photo albums.  There were several of them.  One of them was a large, maroon book with black card stock pages.  The photos were attached by corner stickers that the corner of the picture fit into.  I loved that book.  Some time later, my aunt took that photo album apart and cut a lot of the pictures into smaller pictures, with only the people showing, eliminating the backgrounds.  It must have been the thing to do then because Paul remembers his mother doing the same thing to her photo albums.

I take a lot of close-up pictures, but I also like to get the background in pictures too.  It gives the pictures context, and it's nice to remember things and places as they were.

I think this picture was taken in Greenfield, MA, where my grandfather was from and where some of his family still lived when I was young.  I have seen that wall in Greenfield before, I'm sure.

My next quest is to find that wall, and try to figure out where we were in this picture.  So, you see my point about not having all close-up pictures.  If this picture was cropped, I would never know where it was taken. It's not that important, really, but I like knowing the details of pictures.


***Update.  Paul and I went to Greenfield to try to find where the above picture was taken.  I had a feeling that I knew because I know where this wall is.  The area is a little different now.  We talked to the guy who owns an antique shop next door which, by the way, used to be an Assemblies of God church that I had been to as a kid.  He said that next door to him used to be all grass with a little shack business in the back.  Now that business has a big dirt/paved front and just a little grass.  There are also hedges out near the street.  It's the same place though.

Paul took a picture.  It's a silly picture, I know, but it does show the wall.

This is an old picture of the church next door.  Rev. Ralph Jelley used to pastor it.  He and his wife were friends of my family.  It was 1964 and we were there for someone's wedding.  It is my grandmother, my cousin Lynda, my Aunt Ettie, and my Dad.

This is what the church looks like today.  It is an antique shop.

Everything changes.  Sigh.....

Memorial Day

Today we all (except Mark) camped out in front of Kristen's house to watch Marley march with the West Springfield Middle School Band in the Memorial Day Parade.  After the parade went by we walked to the Town Common for the ceremony.

It reminded me of the only parade that I ever marched in, with the Girl Scouts.  It was the West Springfield Memorial Day parade, 1964.  I joined the Girls Scouts with my friend Doris.  It was held in the First Congregational Church on the corner of Lathrop St. and Park St. in West Springfield.  I'm not sure how long I did Girls Scouts and I don't really remember much about going to it, other than the parade (probably because of the picture that my Aunt Dot took).  One memory I do have is walking home after Girl Scouts with Doris and it was dark out, getting home and watching the Red Skeleton Show with my grandfather.  Funny the things you do remember.

I also remember when I was in grade school at Park Avenue School, walking down to the Town Common, which was just down the street, for Veteran's Day and Memorial Day ceremonies at the same place where they had the Veteran's ceremony today.

Can you pick me out ?  (I'm the one holding the edge of the flag).

Throwback Thursday - One of my favorite toys in the '50's

When Miriam was here the other day we were listening to The Farmer in the Dell song.  I told Paul about a metal Farmer in the Dell toy that I had as a child.  The next thing I knew he found a picture of it on the Internet.  I used to love that thing!

A couple of scrapbook pages - Baba's Baby, Playing with the new shutter release at LL Bean

While we were at LL Bean after Christmas I found an app called BubbleFrame where you can put pictures in "bubbles" on a scrapbook page.  I had fun playing with it.

One night when Paul was sitting in his chair with Miriam, he took a series of "selfies" of him and Miriam.

While we were in Maine we bought a shutter release for my iPhone.  I have a little tripod and we set it up on the next table at LL Bean and tried out the shutter release.  I worked really well!

This Is What Makes Me Me - a scrapbook page, week #1

I have been wanting to take a class by Cathy Zielske for awhile. It is a hybrid scrapbooking class; part digital, part manual.

Since I have my new computer now, which by the way I LOVE, I decided to do it. It is a 12 week class and each week she guides you through a scrapbook page.

This was the first week. I basically never scrapbook about myself, so this was a little outside my comfort zone, but I think it came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Throwback Thursday - "The Olden Days"

Last week on Facebook there were a lot of posts of these "old fashion" pictures.  I dug this one out from one of my photo albums.  It was taken some time in the mid '80's.

My Aunt Ettie, my cousin Lynda and her family were vacationing at Lake George.  My Aunt Dot and I drove up for the weekend and that is when we had this picture taken.  We had a lot of laughs over this picture, especially my Aunt Ettie's lack of a neck, or so it seemed. 

Good times, that now seem a lifetime ago.

Throwback Thursday - Happy Valentine's Week

Paul gave me this box of chocolates for our first Valentine's Day together.  I think I was 17.  He used to call the dress I had on my Italian tablecloth dress. 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Throwback Thursday - Ice Skating

Last week Mark and Janelle took Mason ice skating.  Neither of them had been on skates for years so, needless to say, they had as hard a time staying upright as Mason. 

I got thinking about how much I loved ice skating when I was a kid.  My Aunt Dot used to take me to Porter Lake in Forest Park.  They had a building right by the lake where you could put your skates on and/or go to warm up.  Dot loved to skate and she was pretty good at it.

I also used to skate down at the end of my street at the "swamp".  I was usually not allowed down there except in the winter to skate. 

This is a picture of me and my friend Carlie.  The swamp was right in back of his house so he was always down there and I used to think he was so lucky!

These pictures were taken in 1981.  Paul made a skating rink in our back yard.  The kids loved it!

Throwback Thursday - Talking on the phone



A few weeks ago Kristen, Toby and Marley were here for dinner.  We were eating at the kitchen table and I got a phone call.  I went around the corner and down the cellar stairs to talk on the phone. 

Marley said, "Why is Grandma talking on the phone on the cellar stairs?"

Kristen said, "She's been doing that for years."

I guess she is right.  Paul took this picture of me in November 1977.

I guess my reason is that I've always felt it was not polite to talk on the phone at the table where others were eating, plus in my family it's much too noisy!

Throwback Thursday - Happy Birthday to Me

This past Sunday was my birthday, 62.  I can't hardly believe it.  It got me thinking about past birthdays and how fast time goes by.

I don't have too many old birthday pictures, but here are some of them:

"4"

"6"

"9th birthday on the Mohawk Trail"

"Sweet 16"

"21" (I think)

Happy Birthday to me!

Throwback Thursday - Professional picture

I was talking to Mark this morning and he said that they had just made an appointment to have Mason's third year picture taken.

I think that besides school pictures and wedding pictures, I have only had one professional picture taken. I can remember a man coming to our house. He had a rubber ball that he let me play with (it is in some of the pictures) and he took about 3-4 professional pictures of me. The date on the picture is 1954 so I was around 4 years old.

Vacation Bible School

Today is the first day of VBS. This is my first time working at it. Wish me luck!

Throwback Thursday - Easter Memory 1950's

In keeping with the Easter theme this week, this is a picture taken Easter 1956.  I was 5 and my cousin Lynda was 2.

My aunt Dot was always trying to find pretty places to take our pictures. I remember her setting us up in front of this flower garden. This garden used to fascinate me because I was told it used to be a fish pond. I always wished we could make it a fish pond again, instead of having just flowers in it. It never happened.

Throwback Thursday - Dot's knitted sweaters

Tonight Paul and I went to visit Dot. She wasn't in a very good mood. I got out my phone and started to show her some old pictures that I have on it. She kept asking me what this little gadget was. She couldn't believe it was a phone!

These pictures were my 8th grade picture and 9th grade picture respectively.





I asked Dot if she remembered knitting these sweaters. They were the same pattern but one of them was some type of angora yarn. Surprisingly, she said she did remember that. We looked at some more pictures and her mood seemed to get better.

It felt good to make her laugh remembering old times, if only for a little while!

Throwback Thursday - The Judge

This picture was taken some time in the 1980's and was given to me just a few years ago. Kristen (and Toby) were in Bible Quiz when they were in high school and Toby's Aunt Susan and I were judges. We had fun times going away on weekend quizzes with the kids. I really don't remember if this was an "official" sign or just a joke. Bill Hildreth, who was basically the head of Bible Quiz at our church, must have taken this picture. He is the one who gave it to me. Too funny!

Mason and grandma at the hairdresser's

Tonight I had a hairdressing appointment. We have taken Mason with us before since Mark has been in school and he is fine there. He is still not feeling well with this cold and tonight he was very clingy. He didn't want to sit with Baba so he sat on my lap while I was getting my hair washed (Paul took this picture and I can't believe I'm sharing this). He eventually did go sit with Baba during the cutting and coloring part.

I don't like him being sick, but it is nice to have him be cuddly. He is usually to busy for that!

On another note, I cleaned at Kris and Toby's today and took this picture of Sunny sitting on the couch. He had to go to the vet this week. He had a "thing" on his stomach that looked like it was growing. Marley was so nervous that it was something bad. I guess we all were. The vet said that it had been a little wound that he was "too aggressively" licking and that it should be fine. Thank goodness. We love you Sunny Man.

Speed Cleaning

Today I started my "every other week cleaning" of Kristen and Toby's kitchen and bathroom.

I brought this cleaning book with me that I bought a couple of years ago. It was kind of a challenge to "clean by the book."

It all started with me getting a new iPhone believe it or not. I had decided that I wanted to get an iPhone when the new one came out. This was before I knew that I was getting laid off. When Kristen heard about my impending lay-off, she said, "I think we need to barter." So......the deal is that I clean her bathroom and kitchen every other week, and she adds me to her family plan and pays my monthly bill.

Works for me!!