MEMORY MONDAY

 

My mother has written her memoirs and has been after me to write mine. I have been resisting for a while however I am creating Memory Monday to help me along. Come join me with your own memories. Each week will be a different prompt to encourage the writing of your memories. Link your memories and share them with everyone.

Our prompt is: Other Jobs I’ve Had

I could not have retired without working first. My first career job was teaching. I taught for 3 years. I actually got my first class room by going through the back door. When I graduated from teacher’s college I was not hired. It was 1971 and jobs were scarce. I joined the supply teaching line. This was a wonderful opportunity for me to improve my teaching skills. I taught in many schools to many children and many grade levels.

I was asked to teach a Grade one class in a fairly new school. I arrived to find a very distressed class of 6 year olds. They had been without a teacher for 3 days and I was the third supply teacher. The class was unequipped and very undisciplined. I was so exasperated that I called the principal and asked him to visit. His arrival coincided with a tennis shoe being thrown. Let’s just say he was not impressed. He did give me a chance to explain the situation and was very humbled to learn of the goings on in this particular class. It turned out his teacher had a nervous breakdown. It was this principal who put my name forward store when a teaching job became available and I was hired to teach kindergarten as a permanent teacher.

I then taught Grade 2 until I left to have a baby. My first year students from kindergarten were also in my last class as a grade 2 teacher. After the children were born I tried to get back into teaching and did more supply work however the timing was poor and t my own children needed my attention more so I gave up teaching.

I could not be just a Stay At Home Mom as it would have driven me crazy. To combat my boredom and to earn the extra money we needed I became an Avon lady. I made it my own business and had over 200 customers. Avon also provided me with an opportunity to train other representatives when they had a Group Sales Leader program. I sold Avon from 1983 until 2000. I won many trips and was 3rd highest in the District when I left.

Of course this job was fun however it did not provide a steady income nor any benefits which we needed. With all of the children in school and no longer requiring daycare I got my job at Bell Canada. I thank my sister B for suggesting I apply. I started face to face as a customer representative in The Phone Centre. I stayed for 11 1/2 years until the store was closed. I then transferred to the business office and worked on the phones until I retired.

 

Next Week’s Prompt: No Memories for March! Will be back in April!

My daughter made us a Memory Monday button that you can grab from my sidebar if you want.

Please link up your posts to this continuing linky so we can watch each other’s memoirs develop over this year.  Please use the format of “PROMPT – BLOG NAME” so we can follow each week’s writing.