Interviewing in DC

In the fall of 1974, I started my third and last year of law school. It was time to look for a job.
Let me give you some idea of the atmosphere at the time:
There were 15 women out of 110 students in my class. The previous year had a half dozen. The year before that had three. Yep, you read that right...3.
Two of my (male) friends were part of a group that had lunch with one of the professors of the law school one day. They were complaining about the job market, when the prof tried to comfort them by saying..."Don't worry, just look at your competition. None of these women are going to get jobs. There will be plenty out there for you." (Needless to say, when all the women had jobs lined up before graduation, we were pretty smug about it.)
So, back to my story...
Three of us flew to D.C. that fall, because the conventional wisdom was that the government would hire women more readily than corporations or private firms. Two of the women from that 3-woman class had jobs there, one with the Justice Department and one with the SEC. Linda, Peggy and I lined up our interviews and headed out. The second night there, we had dinner at a Greek place with some of the KU people working in DC. A group of about 10 people. We were the only table in the upstairs room. Before desert, the band and the belly dancer started rolling, so to speak. At that point, Peggy was brave enough (or drunk enough) to tell us her experience that afternoon.
Remember, smoking was still permitted everywhere. She had a half hour break between two interviews, and desparately looked for a ladies' room for a smoke. Propped herself sideways on the john, leaned back on the wall, relaxed and enjoyed her cigarette...until she realized her skirt had fallen into the john. The back was thoroughly soaked. She spent the next 15 minutes madly blotting with TP and holding it up to a hand dryer. Thoroughly disconcerted, she headed for her interview with a slightly damp skirt. She didn't get that job. :)
In fact, out of my class, I can only remember two women who went to work for the government. For the rest of us, it was private firms, corporations (Sprint, SW Bell, Warren Petroleum), and one with West publishers editing law books (our fair Peggy).
One of the few bright spots from law school...

The real story...

Pretty good, MDD, but there are a few extra facts, so let me retell here.

I was an RA in Corbin (south...which I don't think has dorm rooms anymore, just offices) at KU for my first two years of law school. The RAs had great corner suites at the back of the building (toward Mass Street). The first year, mine was on the second floor.

So one night I'm sleeping (dreaming of torts, contracts, civil pro - ugh!) when I'm awakened by pounding on my door. One of the girls yells that there is a guy climbing in her window. So, I head for the room, in my robe (so not red flannel, no rollers please, but the fuzzy slippers might be accurate) and see him finishing his crawl through the window. I meant to grab him by his ear and haul him out, but could only get him by the arm. Pulled him in, marched him downstairs (with half the floor by now), unlocked the glass door and threw him out. I didn't really think about it...just mad and protecting my girls. But when I told my Mom, she about freaked.

So, Bugs, you could have heard it from Grandma, and Quijote, you could have heard it from B's mom, who was on my floor that year.

Amazing what we remember...

Too Fun!!

Man oh man How cool is this!? SO yeah, I think I will tell a story now about my parents... hmm, what to tell... I heard a story once about my mom in college. She was an RA in one of the girl dorms, I forget which, at KU. So one night my mom is studying and one of the girls on her floor comes running in saying there is a guy climbing in her window. So what does my mother do? This cute, little blond woman who wouldn't hurt a fly? She marches right into the room and sees the guy finishing his crawl through the window. My mother at this point instructs this man to climb right back out of it, and he did. I always like to picture my mom in a red flannel neck to ankle night gown, rollers in her hair and fuzzy slippers when I think of this story. Small but mighty is her nature :-) I think it was my grandmother who told me that story a long time ago. I always liked it because I like picturing her at KU.

Hehehe...

Mom and dad need to update... but are they aware that they gave us the power to post on their blog???

AAAHAHAHAHAHA..
... okay I'm going back to studying now.

And no... no it does not print color. Hehehehe....

All right already...

Natives are getting restless, so I guess I'd better post SOMETHING...

Love the Roomba Clan name, JJ. Sort of fits, doesn't it?

One of the reasons I decided to do this is to get some of the clan stories down in print before I go to that big vacuum store in the sky. Over the past few years,I've found myself thinking occasionally, "I'll just ask _________ (Mama Steve, Papa Steve, Grandma Skip, Grandpa Dick, Mama Hallie...take your pick)about that." Bummer.

Let's start with how Mama and Papa Steve met. They lived on farms in the SE part of the state, but went to different schools. They met at a dance/party at someone's house during high school. There was a guessing game popular back then. You would stand behind someone, hold an object over his/her head, and say "Heavy, heavy hangs over thy head". The "someone" would ask "Is it fine or super fine?" (I have no idea what that meant and they never explained it, just giggled...well, she would giggle and he would just smile. What do you suppose they weren't telling us?) Then, the "someone" had to ask questions and guess the object. So, it's Papa's turn, Mama Steve holds a heavy vase over his head, says "Heavy heavy hangs over thy head" and before he can ask "Is it fine or super fine?" she drops it on his head! But it all turned out OK...he walked her home from the party. Which meant he walked six miles to her house and six miles back to his. He didn't get home until just before dawn. What a way to start a 70 year marriage!

I also know they would room in town during the winter to go to school, because education was so important to both families. Mama Steve's moved back from Arkansas because of the condition of the schools...they wanted their kids (5 boys and her) to get through a good high school. She worked as an assistant to a photographer and he manned a lunch counter to make extra money until they graduated.

And that's enough for now. Hope you enjoy these.