Chapter 22 of Tales That I Can Remember by Elsie Swagerty Burton
I was first placed with a dentist who practiced in the Medical-Dental Building at the corner of Sixth and Santa Clara Streets. His dental nurse remembered the name “Swagerty.” My Aunt Belle and she had been friends as children. She recalled how the family had a reputation for cleanliness. She said that every Saturday the steps were washed, the chairs were brought out into the yard and washed down. Yes, cleanliness was stressed at Grandma’s.
The second dentist’s office in which I practiced was an orthodontist. The third was an elderly dentist whom I really enjoyed. The fourth was one who was having trouble making ends meet. He was doing work for welfare patients at a reduced fee. I remember getting into trouble with him because I once told a walk-in patient that the doctor had someone in the chair at the time. The man wouldn’t wait. In this way he lost a fee while working on a welfare patient. He really got worked up over that! An interesting aside to this was that the dentist was the husband to my typing teacher, Mrs. Wirtz.
There were no graduation exercises for our course of study. A B. of A. certificate was sent in the mail. It seemed a bit of a let down.
Elsie at home in 1936
The summer after completion of the course, I was contacted by a Dr. Magoon who needed an office nurse. His real concern was his need for a secretary to assist him with his duties as president of the local branch of the A.M.A. It involved dictation for correspondence and for speeches which he was expected to deliver. He engaged me for the position but I sure did a rotten job on that shorthand. I found the job very stressful.
Harry had gotten a job working in the stockroom for the Kress Company, but it paid very poorly and offered no future betterment. College experience was required in order to qualify for advancement. He was able to switch to the Woolworth Co. where there were no such qualifying requirements.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 