It's fun to read all the interesting occupations and various life experiences of other Armstrong researchers. I wish I had something exciting to add...I never had a real "career" as such and have had a lot of part-time jobs while raising our family, taking care of husband, kids, home, keeping a big garden, etc. I was fired from my first job, working in a coffee shop and bakery in a summer community in Maine. It was a tough, hurry-up job behind the counter, with low pay and tiny tips, but I was happy to have my first (other than baby-sitting) job. Unfortunately, after 3 of my days on the job, an experienced worker returned to the area and needed the job so I lost it to her. I hadn't done anything wrong and was a good worker and really took losing that job hard! I still remember how unhappily surprised I was because I thought I was doing well (I probably was) and at 15 years old I took it hard. That gave me my last summer of leisure, reading books, having fun with pals and going to the beach. The next summer, and every summer through college, I worked in an insurance company in Boston, doing menial jobs like filing and sorting. I rode to the city on the train and tried to think of ways to keep from going nuts from boredom on such a dumb job where the days seemed interminable. During the high school year I worked part-time after school for holiday seasons: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, and Mother's Day in a candy shop. That was probably a kid's dream job...we were allowed to eat as many fancy chocolates and nuts as we wanted, the theory being that workers would soon get sick of the stuff. Since I only worked part-time during holidays I never got sick of it! I had aspirations to go to medical school but had a younger brother and my dad said that there was not enough money for me to plan on graduate school with him coming along. I knew I was smart enough to go to medical school but not smart enough to go to medical school and work at the same time, so off I went to the state U. and took teacher training along with my major. After college and marriage I had a short stint teaching in a high school. A difficult pregnancy ended that brief career. When my two older kids were in school and I had just one baby at home I got a job as an Avon lady in the small town where we lived. This was a pretty good job as I met all the neighbors and friends and somehow fell into giving make-up and skin care lectures and demonstrations for local women's clubs. With all the kids in school I made money editing and typing research papers for local college students, had a party-plan business, worked off and on, part-time for the U.S. Census bureau as an enumerator and supervisor on their various surveys, and did substitute teaching. Somewhere along the way I took some art courses and started painting. I found that people would actually buy my paintings, so I made money that way, and also got into crafts...batik, stained glass, pottery, etc., and sell my items through a craft co-op. I began writing local news for the town paper and that led to writing human-interest stories about local residents. Somehow, about 12 years ago, I fell into restaurant reviewing and for the last 12-15 years have been writing freelance articles for papers and magazines, concentrating most recently on reviewing eateries. I also have written short stories and a novel with little success, although I have won a couple of small poetry contests with very small prizes. I guess I'd have to say my "career" has been as a stay at home wife and mother but besides having a big garden and freezing tons of vegetables I had a bunch of different jobs and found various ways to make money to add to the family coffers. We saved money by doing our own painting, redecorating and repairing around the house ourselves, so I suppose that was money saved-money earned, too! I think my career is like that of many women of my generation. We raised our families, took care of our husband, our home, our gardens, volunteered, got involved in town and community activities, and tried to contribute monetarily through part-time paid work while still being "stay-at-home" wives. I don't feel deprived because I never had a "real career" although I think I could have been successful if my life had led that way.

I spent a year as an authorized forger ... (Don't worry, none of it got into circulation). When color copiers came onto the market, my company worked briefly with the Secret Service and Bureau of Engraving making copies of currency, work documents and stamps. My fondest memory is going to a conference and educating the money makers that color copiers can add different numbers to each bill - it was called automatic page numbering (duh). I got calls from banks all over the world. 1-bill, 1-number has been the staple for determining counterfeit bills for years and this worried them. Our work was taken other countries who incorrectly figured that color was good enough to secure their currency. I got to hold the prototypes for our new $20 bill (there were only a few of them made... sure wish I had one). My favorite currency was the clear plastic AUS currency. I got my bills before they discovered the ink ran. We got to work on inventing all kinds of anti-copy methods. Cool stuff. Sure was fun going to work. Anyone want to guess how much % of the printed and coined US Currency was outside of the US borders 15 years ago? -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Marilyn Otterson Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2006 8:24 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ARMSTRONG] occupations It's fun to read all the interesting occupations and various life experiences of other Armstrong researchers. I wish I had something exciting to add...I never had a real "career" as such and have had a lot of part-time jobs while raising our family, taking care of husband, kids, home, keeping a big garden, etc. I was fired from my first job, working in a coffee shop and bakery in a summer community in Maine. It was a tough, hurry-up job behind the counter, with low pay and tiny tips, but I was happy to have my first (other than baby-sitting) job. Unfortunately, after 3 of my days on the job, an experienced worker returned to the area and needed the job so I lost it to her. I hadn't done anything wrong and was a good worker and really took losing that job hard! I still remember how unhappily surprised I was because I thought I was doing well (I probably was) and at 15 years old I took it hard. That gave me my last summer of leisure, reading books, having fun with pals and going to the beach. The next summer, and every summer through college, I worked in an insurance company in Boston, doing menial jobs like filing and sorting. I rode to the city on the train and tried to think of ways to keep from going nuts from boredom on such a dumb job where the days seemed interminable. During the high school year I worked part-time after school for holiday seasons: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, and Mother's Day in a candy shop. That was probably a kid's dream job...we were allowed to eat as many fancy chocolates and nuts as we wanted, the theory being that workers would soon get sick of the stuff. Since I only worked part-time during holidays I never got sick of it! I had aspirations to go to medical school but had a younger brother and my dad said that there was not enough money for me to plan on graduate school with him coming along. I knew I was smart enough to go to medical school but not smart enough to go to medical school and work at the same time, so off I went to the state U. and took teacher training along with my major. After college and marriage I had a short stint teaching in a high school. A difficult pregnancy ended that brief career. When my two older kids were in school and I had just one baby at home I got a job as an Avon lady in the small town where we lived. This was a pretty good job as I met all the neighbors and friends and somehow fell into giving make-up and skin care lectures and demonstrations for local women's clubs. With all the kids in school I made money editing and typing research papers for local college students, had a party-plan business, worked off and on, part-time for the U.S. Census bureau as an enumerator and supervisor on their various surveys, and did substitute teaching. Somewhere along the way I took some art courses and started painting. I found that people would actually buy my paintings, so I made money that way, and also got into crafts...batik, stained glass, pottery, etc., and sell my items through a craft co-op. I began writing local news for the town paper and that led to writing human-interest stories about local residents. Somehow, about 12 years ago, I fell into restaurant reviewing and for the last 12-15 years have been writing freelance articles for papers and magazines, concentrating most recently on reviewing eateries. I also have written short stories and a novel with little success, although I have won a couple of small poetry contests with very small prizes. I guess I'd have to say my "career" has been as a stay at home wife and mother but besides having a big garden and freezing tons of vegetables I had a bunch of different jobs and found various ways to make money to add to the family coffers. We saved money by doing our own painting, redecorating and repairing around the house ourselves, so I suppose that was money saved-money earned, too! I think my career is like that of many women of my generation. We raised our families, took care of our husband, our home, our gardens, volunteered, got involved in town and community activities, and tried to contribute monetarily through part-time paid work while still being "stay-at-home" wives. I don't feel deprived because I never had a "real career" although I think I could have been successful if my life had led that way. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message