the M.A.D. pages
OMA REMEMBERS . . . |
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| face of our mother. People came to pay their respects, people we had not seen for years, people who had been our friends when my parents had money, but who had forgotten us when there was none left. They said a prayer at the "Profundis" and offered their condolences to the family, and were then given a cup of coffee. I was in grade 6 at the time. I was desperately unhappy in my first job after I left school. I had to make the coffee, open the door, buy lunch for the boss, sometimes answer the phone and type invoices with two fingers. I had never so much as seen a typewriter, but he gave me a piece of paper and said, "Keep trying until you can do it". There was not much for me to do, and I hated every minute I spent there. The salary was ƒ. 10 per month. I looked at the clock to see the hands creep slowly forward and looked out the window, at the boats passing through the canal, at the people who were 'free' walking on the other side. Now this district is the 'red' area of Amsterdam and it is not advisable to walk there after dark. I must have told them at home how I hated it there. |
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Sometimes when the boss had to go out, his wife would come and sit there, knitting, and keeping an eye on me. I had several other working positions. It was now 1934 and times were bad. Many people were out of work. I wrote many letters of application and had some interviews. At last I received an answer from Numan's Blikfabrieken (canning factory), giving me an appointment for an interview. I was really their second choice. When I arrived on the Haarlemmerweg 325 Amsterdam, I was interviewed by a woman, who was in charge of the correspondence department, where I was to be the typist/stenographer. There was no indication that this meeting with this woman would change the course of my life. I had to take down letters in shorthand, type them put them in a book, and Miss Goeman (that was her name) would sign them at the end of each day. I found out later that she lived with her widowed mother, and after her mother died in March 1934 she was on her own in the flat at 152 Admiralengracht. She had a housekeeper who cleaned and cooked the |
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