My niece wanted clarification on what I said about my mom being a nurse. Well, here goes.
My mom and dad were married seven years before I was born. And, I guess (really I am guessing at this) that mom was despairing about being pregnant, and decided to go back to school. She went to the Pennsylvania Hospital school of nursing to study practical nursing.
She almost finished before she got pregnant with me. Even though she didn't graduate, she did have several well-starched nurses uniforms, well-starched nurses caps, and her cape. She also had a "nurses bag" which contained such things as bandage material, a scissors to cut the bandage with, suture thread, suture needle, blood pressure machine, syringe, a small vial for iodine, another one for alcohol, etc. It was in a small case that nurses carried with them when they made house calls -- like a doctor's bag only feminine. I'm guessing again that mom was going to be a home nurse.
We -- my sister and I, both mostly me -- played with her well-starched uniforms, her cape, and especially her cape. She taught us early to treasure these items and keep them clean. How did she do that? She made me iron one of those heavily starched uniforms once -- that's all it took -- after I had messed it up. She also taught us how to make nurses caps out of plain white paper. Who could tell that they weren't cloth? That way, we didn't have to worry about getting them blemished and then having to wash, starch, and iron them.
As I got older I really wanted to be a nurse. There was a family in our church and four of the five daughters went to nursing school at West Jersey School of Nursing (WJSN) and all went around the same time. I used to visit them at the dormitory and infuse myself with as much nursing stuff as I could. I read all of mom's textbooks before I went to high school. I continued my desire to be a nurse until I found out that I had to take high-school chemistry. I figured that was a sure-fail course for me, so I switched to teaching.
Back then there were no tutors or extra chances to pass a course to get into nursing school or any other collegiate endeavor. You were admitted solely on your class standing. Open college classes were not an option. And, you took specific courses in high school to enable you to go on to that specific college course of study. The options back then weren't anything like they are today.
Anyway, because I didn't want to risk failure at anything, I changed over to seeking a teaching degree (which my father was more encouraging about anyway). And, it worked. I am a teacher. Even folks that don't know me will ask, after they've talked to me for a while, if I was/am a teacher.
So you don't think oh, she just went on to teaching as a last-ditch endeavor, that's not true. I also played teacher for years and years and my brothers and sister were my students. My mom and dad even bought me a "teachers kit" -- which was a box that had a tablet, pencils, a slate board, chalk, and a pair of fake glasses -- all teachers wear glasses, right? I worked that "kit" to death.
The picture? Mom in her nurses uniform (I think).
My mom and dad were married seven years before I was born. And, I guess (really I am guessing at this) that mom was despairing about being pregnant, and decided to go back to school. She went to the Pennsylvania Hospital school of nursing to study practical nursing.
She almost finished before she got pregnant with me. Even though she didn't graduate, she did have several well-starched nurses uniforms, well-starched nurses caps, and her cape. She also had a "nurses bag" which contained such things as bandage material, a scissors to cut the bandage with, suture thread, suture needle, blood pressure machine, syringe, a small vial for iodine, another one for alcohol, etc. It was in a small case that nurses carried with them when they made house calls -- like a doctor's bag only feminine. I'm guessing again that mom was going to be a home nurse.
We -- my sister and I, both mostly me -- played with her well-starched uniforms, her cape, and especially her cape. She taught us early to treasure these items and keep them clean. How did she do that? She made me iron one of those heavily starched uniforms once -- that's all it took -- after I had messed it up. She also taught us how to make nurses caps out of plain white paper. Who could tell that they weren't cloth? That way, we didn't have to worry about getting them blemished and then having to wash, starch, and iron them.
As I got older I really wanted to be a nurse. There was a family in our church and four of the five daughters went to nursing school at West Jersey School of Nursing (WJSN) and all went around the same time. I used to visit them at the dormitory and infuse myself with as much nursing stuff as I could. I read all of mom's textbooks before I went to high school. I continued my desire to be a nurse until I found out that I had to take high-school chemistry. I figured that was a sure-fail course for me, so I switched to teaching.
Back then there were no tutors or extra chances to pass a course to get into nursing school or any other collegiate endeavor. You were admitted solely on your class standing. Open college classes were not an option. And, you took specific courses in high school to enable you to go on to that specific college course of study. The options back then weren't anything like they are today.
Anyway, because I didn't want to risk failure at anything, I changed over to seeking a teaching degree (which my father was more encouraging about anyway). And, it worked. I am a teacher. Even folks that don't know me will ask, after they've talked to me for a while, if I was/am a teacher.
So you don't think oh, she just went on to teaching as a last-ditch endeavor, that's not true. I also played teacher for years and years and my brothers and sister were my students. My mom and dad even bought me a "teachers kit" -- which was a box that had a tablet, pencils, a slate board, chalk, and a pair of fake glasses -- all teachers wear glasses, right? I worked that "kit" to death.
The picture? Mom in her nurses uniform (I think).
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