The Adventure Begins

Never has anyone been so excited to finish college and be taking on "real life" than I was in March of 1951. By attending summer school I was able to finish a quarter early. Duke University had communicated with my dean about their need to hire a graduate for the hospital immediately. It was not what I had ever anticipated, but I was anxious for a job-any job. This one paid well, and I could live on campus in faculty housing, rent free and have all my meals at the hospital. My marine boyfriend took me to Durham for the interview. I borrowed a nice suit from Christine, my room mate, and got the job. He also moved me and my few things to my house, just a block from my work. Our relationship was at a standstill. We had never talked about marriage, but I had no one else, and I wondered if anything would ever come of it. He went to church with me occasionally, but had no interest in joining. Durham was too far to sustain a romance, and he could see that I was just too excited about my new situation. I would probably soon marry a rich doctor. Oh, yes!!!

My new house was in a block of little white bungalows with a front porch and a swing, a living room large enough for small parties, three bedrooms, a huge bath, a small kitchen and a storage room. We had a maid who cleaned our house once a week, made the bed with clean linen, vacumed, cleaned the kitchen, etc. The hospital paid her. We had to wear starched white uniforms, white hose, and comfortable nurses shoes. I had saved enough money to buy my uniforms, but I left my purse with the dry cleaning I was delivering for just a minute, missing it immediately when I got to the door of the student getting the dress, ran back down and it was gone. Martha Jorgensen lent me two hundred dollars to buy them, so most of my first pay check went to pay her back.

The hospital also did my uniforms free. All I had to do was wash my stockings and undies, and had so much free time. The head dietitian asked if I knew anyone who would like to work and I contacted Christine. She was hired and we became room mates again as soon as she finished Spring quarter. She enjoyed hospital work far more than I did. After two years she decided to intern in dietetics and spent the rest of her working years in hospital work, mostly for the state. When she retired at 65 she was head of all state food services, and making more money than she ever dreamed of.

I did not see my handsome marine all summer because he was aboard ship, cruising around the world, but we wrote often, and I was careful not to tell him about my exciting social life. I met a guy at church right away who was an intern at the hospital and he gave me a real rush, like I had never experienced before. I dated others, too. I had heard about the medical school dances, the big one always had a name band and it was ultra formal. A medical student asked me to it. When I told the boy at church that I was going he was very upset. He said,"You won't like it. Just a drunken brawl." He gave me $5 to put in my pocket so I could call a cab rather than come home with a driver who had been drinking. My date, who was very good looking, didn't drink either, but he didn't ask me out again, either. I had a good time, though. My date sat me up on the piano (I had always wanted to do that) and we sang with a bunch of couples. In the crowd I spotted a girl from my high school who was at UNC in Greensboro, and another who was a couple of years older, but we knew each other, because we rode the same school bus. In my borrowed clothes, I looked just as good as they did. A triumph of sorts!

There was a single doctor on the faculty who looked about thirty. I had a big crush on him - even got him to yank my wisdom tooth. He was an oral surgeon! He happened to be at the big dance, Drunk!! I couldn't stand to look at him after that!

I dated the nicest medical student from Panama City for a while, and a doctor in residence from Peru., but I missed my marine. When he came back in the fall I got tickets for him and a couple of his friends to a football game. He confessed that he had fallen in love with his best friend's sister when he went home for leave at the end of summer. She was a home economics teacher. I was sad, of course, but his final word was," None of my friends could ever believe we went together so long and never slept together!" Something I never regretted!

Several things account for my long absence from the computer, mostly the enormous amount of yard work I have to do in summer. We also had a wedding, a granddaughter, and I helped a lot. We decided last Christmas to give our kids and their spouses a cruise to the Mediterranean as our presents along with the last child at home in all three families. It was a trip of a lifetime! The teenagers all bonded and kept saying, "What a spring break!!" The older five grandchildren were all still in university. They felt left out, but we will try to make it up to them.

We also had a trip to North Carolina and went with friends to Yellowstone among other travels.

There was a big setback these last two months. I have spent most of that time in bed with a bad muscle spasm that just will not go away. I am determined I will not be hooked on codeine sleeping pills, so I have decided to write when I cannot sleep. After all these years of feeling like a teenager, I cannot believe this has happened to me.