My first job lasted one night! My brother-in-law John Flugga got me a job setting type, at night, for a price list at Hoxie Fruit Company in Waterloo. It was to be me alone in a huge warehouse full of wagon loads of fruit. My first night the gentleman who was to teach me asked me if I liked Bing cherries. Who doesn’t like Bing cherries? Well before I went home, he got a shovel and filled a bag with Bing cherries for me. Okay so now I’m a thief on my first night. My hands were covered with ink. I was living with Norma at the time. When I got home, I started to cry and Johnny said, “No woman has to work in a place like that.” That was all I needed to hear so I quit before I really started. Next day I went to an agency where they took part of your first month’s salary to find you a job. They got me a job at Cowan and Cowan Wholesale Lumber as a secretary. I got to use my shorthand and use some of the first technology sending messages out on what I assume were Western Union machines. I loved the job and the people I worked with. My first Christmas I got a $200 bonus which to a poor kid like me who had never even seen a $100 bill was a small fortune. I stayed working there until we moved to the farm.