From high school to master's degree with GI Bill

Mesa, AZ

While in high school I wanted very much to go to college, but my parents said they could not pay for any. I went to work in a creamery, and one evening while talking to a friend I explained how much I wished to go to college. He stated that I should go into the Army and receive the GI Bill for college. I volunteered for the draft and entered the Army on Jan. 26 and made the cutoff by 4 days, which was Feb. 1, 1955. I took my basic training in Camp Chaffee, Ark. My second 8 weeks of trading was in clerk typist school. After graduating I received orders to report to Sandia Base in Albuquerque, N.M. I was assigned to the Signal Corps as a procurer of parts. Following my time in Sandia I returned home to Keosauqua, Iowa. I went to Ames, Iowa, for winter and spring quarters. I returned home and worked with bricklayers as a laborer. My girlfriend and I were married in the fall and I continued working as a laborer till I was laid off in March. We lived in Kahoka, Mo., so I went to Kirksville, Mo. and enrolled in college. My wife joined me in the spring and we both enrolled for summer quarter. We were receiving about $230 per month and we both worked. Our first job was working at Dixie Cream Donut Shop from 4 in the evening until midnight. Our total pay was $20 for working 40 hours Monday through Friday. In the fall we worked at the Colonial Manor Motel as night clerks making 60 cents an hour. Following that job I took a job with the City of Kirksville as dog catcher. I worked with another man named John Paul Jones and we owned an old pickup to haul dogs or whatever. We worked early mornings, evenings and weekends. We split our pay which was $100 per month plus $25 for the truck and $1 per dog or cat or whatever we picked up. We did not have anything for catching dogs but our hands, so we asked the city for a hoop which they provided, but it was too shallow and a dog could just stand and run, which they did. One dog was running on the sidewalk on the city square and the dog was running scattering people out of the way. Shortly after that net disappeared and that ended use of the net. I graduated in spring 1960 with a B.S in industrial education. I went right into graduate school and I graduated with an M.S. in industrial education in Spring 1961. My wife graduated in 1961 with a B.S. in home economics ed. My GI Bill stopped in December 1960. I am very proud of the USA for providing me with a better way of life. We retired in 1993 and 1994. Thanks, America.

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