After college, I returned to Portland, Oregon and got a job working for a travel agency. This job had nothing to do with my English major, but in the 1969 Portland job market I was expected to do female work, basically typing. I could not get my error-free word per minute rate high enough to qualify for most jobs. A father of an old school friend hired me to book Trailways bus tours.
I earned $65 a week and a friend at work told me about her neighborhood’s affordable places. I was able to rent the entire first floor of this house for $90 a month including utilities except for heating oil. I bought some used furniture from a store on the corner and was set. My upstairs neighbor was very nice, but I suspect she earned her money “on her own,” since she went out in the evening dressed to the nines and had no day job.
The house had an old wringer washer in “my” basement and a clothesline in the back. I had a big kitchen and was able to keep cooking my “Italian” meals for friends. Â I enjoyed my independent life with a neighborhood tavern around the corner, a grocery store near by and my own home. Finally I really felt grown up.
Saved By Words 
Nothing beats that first home. all on your own.
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No living with my parents after college for me!
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Your reply to Ron Walker made me laugh! Sounds like you had fun there đ
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I was thinking of all those millennials back at home after college saving on rent.đ
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I know you were! That’s exactly what I was thinking about when I burst out laughing…oops!
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Well, its amazing what you could do with $90 at the time. It’s an uphill task for new graduates today.
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I agree with you.
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It’s funny, how I was just thinking about typing and how I learned. In school we had a typing teacher and learned about getting jobs “typing.” Sounds crazy now!
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And carbon paper before Xerox. Agh.
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