Nostalgia Lane (Part 4)

01/30/07
Gosh, I didn't want to leave home! I cried and cried at the thought. BUT, I made that decision during my last year of high school that I, along with two other friends would obtain a job working in Washington, D.C. for the Department of Agriculture.The day was late in August, 1962. President Kennedy was in office which is another walk down Nostalgia Lane. We were to start working on September 4, 1962. Daddy had a 1956 bronze and white Chevrolet with a dual exhaust system, and after hugging and kissing my parents goodbye, I pulled out in that car at the age of 17 and went and picked up my friends. Although I had never driven more than a 15 mile radius of our home he trusted me to take that car. We were headed to my Aunt's house in Virginia to stay with her and her family till we found an apartment. Anyone who has led a sheltered life and then is pitched out in to the big city to make a living knows the traumatism involved, but also the excitement of beginning a new life. Going from a small town and friends and quiet in to a place of cement and monuments and the hustle and bustle of city lfe is quite lifechanging.My first day of work was spent in their sick bay! Can you imagine trying to find a place to park a Chevrolet the first day of work in a city of cars and trucks and buses all honking horns and taxis and people running across streets. But, to me they all knew where they were going...we didn't! I parked daddy's car along the "mall" near the Washington Monument all by itself. Why it was not towed away in still unbelievable to me. One of the four bosses I was going to work for came to the sick bay and said to me, "Pamela, we do not want to lose you today after waiting so long to get a secretary...we need you to come back tomorrow!" Working in the big city had begun!