December 2nd 1913
I'm am now living in Newark New Jersey. This is the first time in my life I have been completely lonely.
Last year, I was living in St Louis, the same town as Carolyn, my childhood best friend. She had accepted a teaching job at a private school, and I managed to find an opening at a department store called Nugent's and moved out to be with her. My job was to make out sales slips, and to teach the cash girls some grammar. Hardly the job I wanted, but the $15 a week they paid took care of room and board with a little left over for cloths. (1. pg82)
My mother passed away shortly after I returned from college. She went into a merciful coma and passed just 3 weeks before I was scheduled to move to Boston. My good friend, D.Q. Applegate had found a training program for women that wanted to train girls and do personal work in department stores. I had hoped to take the course and travel back and forth to see my mother, but that was no longer necessary.
After the funeral, D.Q. Applegate arranged for me to borrow some money to pay part of the rent and fees in Boston. I regret to say that I gave my family the impression that I had a scholarship. (1. pg82) My mothers side of the family had always looked down on those that needed to borrow money. My family was glad that I was doing something, but I felt numb that whole summer. The only light within the foreign state of mind was that I was that I had escaped the house and all the memories associated with it.
Shortly after I moved out to St Louise, Carolyn went back to her family in New York. I was left alone in the hottest summer I've ever experienced. Feeling upset with my life, not sure what I was doing, a misfit with a job.
When I found the job posting in Newark, I applied immediately, and was hired as the educational director for Bamberger's, another department store. And now I'm here, teaching, the one thing I didn't want to do. But at least it's an escape from St Louis.
1. Douglas, Marjory Stoneman, and John Rothchild. Marjory Stoneman Douglas: Voice of the River: An Autobiography. Pineapple Press, 1990.
2. Photo: Valerie Battle Kienzle. Lost St. Louis. Arcadia Publishing, 13 Nov. 2017.
