Then you learn that there's an office (where your mother has worked since you moved here to go to this private school) that is all about fund raising.
The Patron's Office at the school was all about letting all the people who might be interested in supporting the school know what it was all about. That was in the 1950s, so it didn't include anything beyond slide shows and tape recorded presentations. (Of course there were also people giving talks to introduce the presentations.) These were the forerunners of PowerPoint.
These people worked many hours to put together these presentations. I may have seen one at some time or another, but I really don't remember. I do remember being in the attic offices in the Administration Building where my mother worked.
Which one is she? The one working the tape recorder (reel to reel) wearing headphones.
She also spliced the tapes using some great mind-altering solutions. I know I loved smelling them, one of my first chemical highs. At the time I also loved model glue, turpentine, and gasoline fumes, and coffee when perking. I learned that even coffee didn't taste like it smelled, just as those other scents would eventually make me pretty sick. But I digress.
The students came to St. Louis from all over the US, from 7th grade through college. My tuition was reduced by my mother's dedicated working (a married mother with a full time job in the 50s...oh my!) I received a million dollar education in 1955 dollars, well, maybe not quite that much. And there was the hitch that you had to worship their god, it being a religious school also.
This is my Sepia Saturday post, about the attire worn by working people in the 50s. Not much to say about it though. Go see other's posts at Sepia Saturday blog.
