Category: Seattle

Her 300 Word Story Continues

~ Janet McKee ~ Leave a comment

Cross Country With Phil and Miriam and Rachel

It was the middle of June when they left Seattle in 1960. She can’t remember very much about this trip. Janet had a 4 door Ford which could easily accommodate a passenger. What car did Rachel have?? Rachel’s parents Miriam and Phil were wonderful companions.

They reached Yellowstone National Park and marveled at Old Faithful. Rachel knew Yellowstone well as she had worked there several summers before as a laundry girl with Lucy another mutual Middlebury friend. The foursome carried on across the plains to Minnesota where she parted company with the others. She stopped in Grand Marais Minnesota to visit with a couple whom she knew in Cambridge.(when she worked as a secretary at A. O. Wilson Structtural Steel Company). From Grand Marais she proceeded alone to Newark Ohio to visit her sister Nan and family. After a few days she headed for Boston. She had a new passenger – nephew 7 year old Bobby, Nan’s oldest son. Bobby was going to visit his grandparents in New Britain Connecticut. A brief stop to deliver Bobby and then finally home to Belmont Massachusetts. Another cross-country trip completed – her 4th in 8 months and not by air.

My 300 Word Biography Continued

~ Janet McKee ~ 2 Comments

In my previous entry I got as far as Seattle in my travels at age 22.

While in Seattle she visited the Geography Department at the University of Washington.  She had applied there to do her Masters Degree but she never heard back from them.  She had also applied to the University of Wisconsin and Northwestern University.   The University of Washington was her first choice.  Northwestern was her 3rd choice but they offered her a tutoring position and that was attractive financially plus giving her some valuable teaching experience.   Hence Northwestern.

She asked the Head of Department at U Washington what had happened to her application – he had mislaid it!!  On such action her life path hinged.  One wonders what would have happened if …………..

He asked what she was doing then  and she  explained that she was just traveling and looking for a job.  He suggested she contact John Nordmark at Puget Planners.  And that’s what she did.  She was offered a position.  She can’t remember the title – Research Planner?  Anyhow when she queried her salary she was told that despite her qualifications she would be paid the same as the female secretary.   Those were the times…….

She accepted the conditions and it was agreed that she would start in 3 weeks time, after she had gone back East to collect her belongings.  It was exciting to have the prospect of a job doing urban planning research in Seattle!

Her friend Rachel helped her find accommodation.  Rachel knew of 2 teachers living in Magnolia looking for a third.  She was interviewed and accepted to live with Jody and Mary Ann.  She could travel by bus to work at Puget Planners on Dexter.

She boarded a Greyhound bus to travel back to Boston.  It helped to make her realize just how big this country is.  And this was before the Interstates.  By the time she finally reached Boston she was beginning to regret the plan.  Did she really want to return to Seattle?

to be continued

 

300 Words for a Biography

~ Janet McKee ~ 2 Comments

IMG_0001  Graduation from Middlebury College, Middlebury Vermont, June 1958Aunt Libby, Cousin Betsy, Jan, my mother, Lil my sister-in-law

Janet was born on December 7, 1936 in Boston Massachusetts, daughter of the late Joseph Buckingham Miller and Dorothy Friend Miller.  She grew up in Belmont, MA and after graduating from Belmont High School she went on to Middlebury College in Vermont to study French and Geography and to ski, her favorite sport among many.  At Middlebury she scored out the “et” -on her name badge and from then on she was known as Jan.

From Middlebury she went on to Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois to obtain a Master’s Degree in Geography.  In the summer following graduation she took a 2 month trip to Europe.  She flew Tiger Airlines.  It took 14 hours with stops in Halifax Nova Scotia, Gander Newfoundland, Shannon in Ireland, and finally London.  And then she spent a month cycling and staying in Youth Hostels in England, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.  Along with 2 other girls, Betty and Miriam, she then traveled by train to Geneva Switzerland where Betty picked up a brand new Volkswagen.  The 3 girls spent a month driving in southern France and Spain and western France to reach Paris and fly home to New York in August.

Her travels were not over.  She then rode in another VW with her Middlebury friend Lucy  to go to Chicago/Evanston to attend a mutual friend’s wedding.  Middlebury classmates, Ginny and John,  She missed the wedding.  She  met a Northwestern classmate/friend who was driving to California.  He was leaving almost immediately and had room in his car.  Off she went on Route 66 with Mohammed, Bob, and Helene.   Next stop Palm Springs California.  Followed by a camping trip to a lake in the mountains east of San Francisco.

Still footloose and fancy free she traveled by bus from San Francisco to Seattle, again to visit another Middlebury friend, Rachel.

The above Middlebury friends are still close over 60 years later.

I think I’ve exceeded my allotted 300 words.  To be continued.