it was an early version of an audio recording device that used wax cylin- ders to record dictation. Executives would speak into the Dictaphone to record memos, notes, and other busi- ness matters. The Dictaphone operator (me) would listen to the recording and type out the content. Typing was done on heavy, manual typewriters, not electronic keyboards, and it required focus, strength and skill to do it well. I wasn’t that good at first but by the time I left Allstate about six months later, I was better.
to a restaurant where he asked me to marry him. When I suggested that it might be better if we got to know each other again before we made any big decision it only took him a few months to find a substi- tute. I guess he really wanted to get married. Years later I was taking my daughter, Wendy, to the ortho- dontist and walking down Walnut Street in Philadelphia when we ran into Sidney Albert. Both of us were delighted to see each other after so long. We ran toward each other like those slow motion scenes in the movies. He couldn’t say goodbye after so many years so he went with us to the orthodontist’s office and we talked while Wendy had her teeth worked on. Sidney said to Wendy, “Oh what a lovely mother you have.” Wendy just said, “Ich!” She loved being a Smart Alec sometimes. After I graduated from high school I started looking for a job. The first place that hired me was a candy store. They wanted me to wear a hair net over my long hair and weigh candy. When I told my mother about the job she said that she didn’t raise her daugh- ter to work in a candy store for $17.00 a week. So I kept looking. The next place that hired me made false teeth. They wanted me to dust. I climbed up a ladder to dust on top of some shelves, climbed back down and said “Thank you, but no.” I knew my moth- er wouldn’t have approved anyway. Eventually I got a job with THE WORKING GIRL Allstate Insurance as a Dictaphone operator and typist. The Dictaphone is a technology so far in the past I am sure no one reading this knows that
Man with a Dictaphone
Dorothy Schluger (22)
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