More Changes

 

1967 - 1968

 
It felt real good to be home again, and now it was time for Dorrie and Carl to get ready to go back to school.  Dorrie was going into her Junior year at El Cajon Valley High and Carl was going into eighth grade at Cajon Valley Junior High.  I was thinking of going back to Adult School to brush up on typing and shorthand.  I was tired of volunteering all the time.  Dorrie was spending every Sunday at Balboa Park where they had Folk Dancing classes. She met a boy named Steve, who was a very good dancer, and he wanted her to put on exhibitions with him at the Senior Centers.  She loved to dance , didn’t have any folk dance dresses.  She wanted me to make her some.  I had made all of her dresses since she was born, but for fancy dresses like she wanted, I said that she could make them herself.    She did and did a beautiful job too.  Better than I would have.  I didn’t have the patience any more for detail work.  She and Steve put on quiet a few exhibitions together.  The summer after her Junior year she worked at Naranca School and she and Steve put on a exhibition for the whole school.  The students and teachers thought it was different and really enjoyed it.  Even had a write-up in the newspaper.  After summer school, Dorrie was involved in the High School Marching Band.  She and several other student carried the School sign when they were in the parades.  The biggest parade here in El Cajon is the Mother Goose Parade.  It has gone on for 50 years or so.  This was the beginning of her senior year.

Went the youngsters went back to school, I did decide to go back to school too. I talked to several people and they all remarked that when a husband retires, the wife better have a job of her own.  Van had no idea yet when he would retire or what kind of work he would do.  Besides, I thought it was time for a change for me.

I put in applications in several places and work wasn’t very plentiful.  I also put in applications in the school district and the county.  Lots of calls from the county but all in the San Diego area and I didn’t want all that traveling.    I was in not hurry to start work anyway.  Penny’s Dept Store was on Main Street and I decided to try for a clerk job there.  The interview went great until the very end when she asked what kind of work my husband did.  When I mentioned that he was in the Navy, that was end of the interview.  She said that there were no openings at the present time.  So that was that. I decided I would wait until I would hear from the school district and I did.  I was interviewed for a clerk job in the main library and I got it.  The other women were very friendly and helpful and we all got along real well.  It was supposed to be a temporary job, but it went on and on.

Dorrie took Driving Education at school, so she could drive herself to school and dancing exhibitions.  Bob did get transferred because he drove his car to work.  He felt bad about it, but he overslept, and he drove his car to work against the rules.  He always had trouble waking up in the morning.  When he was a baby, he slept on the front porch in his carriage.  The traffic was very noisy, but it never bothered him.  I guess that is where he got to sleep so soundly.   He had a few weeks at home before he left for Vietnam.   So I ended up with three cars to drive, Bob’s sport car, the family car and my car that Dorrie started  to drive.

This was Summer 1967 and Van received orders to be transferred to Philadelphia to put the USS New Jersey back in commission.  It would take about a year but he was thrilled to be on a battleship.  He didn’t like Philadelphia very much, the weather was cold and rainy, but he was kept very busy.  He missed having a car, so he took some time off to come home and take the family car back with him.
 

 

 

 

updated: 20.11.2011