2003-01-28 - 8:36 p.m.
36 years
36 years. 36 years ago, I was still in elementary school in the fifth grade in Mr. Klein�s class. I was admiring the nonchalance with which Susie, who had broken her arm, would swing her arm up on top of her head and rest it there. Susie started a whole new fashion of little girls swinging their arms up and resting their arms up there. Susie had that power. But R. was not in school 36 years ago. No, she was starting her career as a secretary with the great State of Wisconsin.
Now, she is retiring. The party is on Thursday night and on Friday she will slip off to do other things. She�s left our office for a while before but she�s been in state service for more years than some of the attorneys at the office have been alive. While she�s been on the job, seven presidents or so have come and gone. She was in state service before there ever was a Public Defender�s Office.
R.�s seen great changes in the role of secretaries. Once it matter that she was a quick typist and could produce wonderfully professional looking forms. Not any more. The computer, which she embraced so excitedly and thoroughly, did not set her free. It held her captive to the less interesting tasks. No longer was she asked to produce good-looking briefs. Instead, she spent her days logging in transcripts as they arrived.
36 years is a long time. By the time I was 36 years old, I had grown up, pursued two different careers, married Mr. Philately, and had two children. 36 years is long enough to do a lot of living. I�ve been at my job for almost 12 years. I can�t imagine what it would be like to have been in state service for 36 years.
Next week will be strange for R. and for us. For the first time in decades, she will wake up and not have a state job to do. We will lack her computer expertise, which complimented mine, and her vast legal knowledge. I will miss the letters she wrote to let clients know when I was on vacation, assuring them that I would get to their letters as soon as I returned. I will miss the little tidbits of information she sends in e-mail to tell us about some feature of the word processing program that we might have missed.
So, goodbye R. After 36 years, you�ve earned a rest.
LAST YEAR: Off With Their Receivers
LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
Losing My Mind
A Time for Every Purpose
Here Comes Atticus
Torpor
Twist and Twist Again
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
