Part IV: If you dig, dig, dig with a shovel and a stick

Sometimes I felt like I WAS digging with a shovel and a stick, but mostly a stick.  Teaching was not easy.  It was rewarding but not easy.  I taught for 6 years before Tommy and I got married.  My starting salary in 1962 was $2,600 a year.  Now in case you didn't read that correctly, it says twenty six hundred, NOT 26 thousand.  Yep.  That was my starting salary.  My car payments were $76 a month.  I also paid Mother $50 a month room and board (which she, unbeknowns to me, put into a savings account which she gave me when I married Tommy).   Somehow I managed to pay all my bills and never went into debt.

I fell in love with my students, and since they weren't much younger than I was, they wanted to hang out with me on the weekend as well.  I had twin girls who loved to walk by my room, look in, shout "Hello Pat!" and run!  They loved calling me by my first name.  Of course I had to act all mad, but they knew I loved it.

I made so many friends and have so many wonderful memories of those years.  I had teacher friends too, who loved me and helped me be the best teacher I could be.  Their example made a huge difference in the way I taught.

When I quit teaching in 1968 I was making $4,100 a year.