COLLEGE DEGREES

If you don’t have a college degree what does the lack of one get you in life?

I don’t have one.  One and a half years at Kent State Univ.  was enough for me.  At the age of 19, “life” was calling.  The years passed and I have never suffered boredom behind a corporate desk but I have also never made much money.  If I could do it all over again I’d probably do the very same thing.  

In the past 60 years of my working life these are some of the jobs I’ve had.

At 19, I was a saleswoman at William Kitt in Cleveland Ohio, living in the YWCA and fending off advances from Asif who wanted me to go back to Pakistan with him.

My family moved to Florida and I modeled for the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota for $2.75 per hour.  That paid for a hitchhiking trip in Europe.

I was a “board girl” for F.I.duPont & Co, a stock brokerage house in Sarasota.  I would change prices on a big blackboard as they came through on the screen.  A lot of cigar smoke there!

In 1969 McDonalds Corp started hiring mothers with kids in school from 11 a.m. til 2 p.m., so the mamas would be home when the kids got out of school.  This was in Winston-Salem, NC and thanks to Big Macs I gained 10 lbs  while working there.  Back then McDonalds paid $1.20 per hour.

I lost the 10 lbs and bought a steakhouse in Winston-Salem. Really!  I had to try it.  NC had just gotten “liquor by the drink”  and my bar was a busy place. I quickly got over the notion that owning a restaurant is like having a house party for all your friends.  Too many long hours, the kitchen help walking out the back door with food, etc.  I moved on.

A route dispatcher for American Wholesale Beverage in Greensboro, NC. It was the early 80s and Americans were just becoming familiar with European wines. It was an education for me. The only alcoholic beverage we had at home was my father’s Rolling Rock beer

A housekeeper in a Victorian Bed & Breakfast in Winston-Salem.  The Jacuzzi tubs had nothing to do with Victoriana but they were immensely popular and hard to clean.  Once, Maya Angelou was a guest, and she asked the owner and me to join her in celebrating her birthday at breakfast.  We drank champagne. 

A move to upstate NY, and I was the marketing person for Syracuse Colour Graphics.  I commuted every day from Oswego and was there for 9 years.  Another education-commercial printing. I learned all about blueprints, matchprints and Heidelberg presses.  Folks from out of town would fly in to check their work on press  and I would drive them back to the airport with 10 minutes to spare before their plane took off.  They always made it!

My partner (now my husband) and I started a yarn shop and weaving studio in Oswego called Northwind Yarns and Weaving. He’s a weaver and I learned to weave years ago in NC.  The location of our shop looked very European, through a gate and down a long brick walkway.  We came into the business at the beginning of the “scarf craze.” The yarns were gorgeous and even if you didn’t knit,  a couple of these yarns in a bowl made a great decorative accent!  The yarn shop was a learning experience but after 8 years it was time to move on.

TJMaxx is a fun place to work.  Designer clothes coming through and all those purses!  I’ve had a fixation on clothes ever since wearing a uniform all through high school.  It’s a wonder I ever draw a paycheck!

If you would like to respond, just click the link below that refers to “comment.”

Next Post, Next Monday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Joan