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MA: So I wanted to go back a little bit, you said that your husband encouraged you to go to college, to apply to college. What was that like? You had a small child at that point, your daughter?

BK: Yeah, I just had Pam, our oldest, and oh my gosh, I was still nursing her. And so, and we only had one car between the two of us. We didn't have very much money starting out. So a friend would be kind enough to run me home and I'd nurse her, and then run me back to class, 'cause I was carrying a full load. And a lot of times, I would just walk because we weren't very far from the college, too. Yeah, but I was married then and there weren't very many married students going to college.

MA: How about women in general?

BK: There weren't very many married women either, yeah. Of course, I was married and so there was no social connection with college at all.

MA: Did you know at that point that you wanted to go into education?

BK: Not really. I just kind of picked it when he said, "I want you to go to college." And so I just picked that, yeah. And found out that I really did not enjoy it. So I only taught two-and-a-half years.

MA: What did you not like about --

BK: Well, I think it was just... the first, I taught, I finished half a year for a teacher and it was in a one-room school and I had first, second, and third grade. And that was my first experience as a teacher. And it was hard. And a one-room school and I think that kind of turned me off. And then, I taught first grade and then I taught kindergarten. It was in private kindergarten 'cause kindergarten wasn't in public school back then. And it was more the parents, ruling what I was supposed to do, instead of what I felt I should be doing. And so that was another bad experience. And then, by the next year, while I was pregnant with our youngest, and you couldn't teach when you were pregnant. [Laughs] And so I thought, "What am I doing? I don't even enjoy it anyway." And so, I did other things, short-term things, I love short-term things. I was a fashion consultant and then I would do volunteer things and I joined a lot of clubs, women's clubs and AAUW and got involved that way.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.