INTRO: The Single Mom of Cactus County

In October 1990, I walked out on my job in NYC for good. But I didn't move back home. I moved to Brookline, MA; into an apartment with two roommates I'd met through a newspaper ad. For a year, I struggled on a cashier's part time wages at Stop & Shop. I could barely pay the rent and I could barely afford my groceries. I had to eat the same thing for dinner all week. I took a second job on two occasions, one as a bank teller (BSB) and for the summer, as a secretary in a computer store, Microtech Systems. For some reason, I have never been able to handle working two jobs before becoming physically sick and giving vent to -- yes -- temper tantrums. (I would like to pause here and say: "Before you check out the splinter in someone else's eye -- WHY DON'T YOU REMOVE THE PLANK IN YOUR OWN?) In other words....Why don't you step outside that lens, my friend? And capsize, with all the lies, that YOU'VE been living in???... * * * :)  My mind and body have never been able to handle two jobs, although I have often tried -- without success -- to do just that.
After struggling for a year in Brookline, and although I had made many friends at S&S who did not want to see me go -- I left Brookline. And then, I moved back home to Montville, CT; with my parents in October 1991. My parents eventually convinced me that I would be able to collect unemployment as Stop & Shop in Waterford had reduced my wages during the transfer. I suffered extreme burn-out, physically and emotionally, from living and working in two cities, 1987-1991. I was unemployed for almost a whole year (1991-92). I did take adult ed classes at Montville High, my alma mater, in Basic Auto Repair (my father's idea) and Oil Painting (following my mother's latent passion) in 1992.
Foxwoods Casino, which began as a bingo hall on an Indian reservation in July 1986, opened as a full resort destination casino in Ledyard, CT in 1992.
In the Spring of 1992, I also became a Reporter for "The Resident" newspaper in Pawcatuck, CT. (Check out some old issues for my byline!)
It was in the Fall of 1992 that, after sending out countless resumes and cover letters to any and all businesses in the area, and some, out of the area -- that I registered with Kelly Temporaries of New London. My first assignment was as a Bank Teller in my hometown (F&M) for almost a year. When my temp assignment ended in Spring 1993, I took a trip to Mesa, Arizona to visit my roommate I had in Queens who had also moved "back home" to write for a local newspaper. THE SINGLE MOM OF CACTUS COUNTY is my tale of this next adventure. UP NEXT, right here, on "Fool's Gold," a "novella."

Up Next: Intro to "The Single Mom of Cactus County"

After NYC, then what?  Did Debbie reeeally just give up on the Big City and move back home to Southeastern Connecticut? Or is there yet another chapter -- or two -- in the mix?

THE VIEW

...from the 42nd Floor. From my desk, I could look past the Office Manager's desk (who faced me) outside of the tall windows onto the Times Square billboard and the busy streetscape down below. To my right was the Hudson River. I saw the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center every day.

In the lobby was a card & gift shop, as well as Fritzl's Coffee Shop (which went out of business before I moved away!) Below, on the concourse level, was the Beanstalk Cafe. A large silver sculpture which represents a sundial still graces the plaza today. The white marble concourse leads to other shops and restaurants at the subway level and the F train subway platform which took me to Forest Hills and midtown Manhattan during the workweek. It also leads to Rockefeller Skating Rink, just a few blocks away from the office. The McGraw-Hill Bookstore was also at concourse level.

On one side of the building was a circular tunnel with a waterfall along both sides. There was a Labels for Less clothing store on 49th and the Dish of Salt Restaurant was on 48th Street. Across Sixth Avenue was the Simon & Schuster Bookstore. Just up the street is Radio City Music Hall. The Time-Life Building is on Sixth Avenue, where the Exxon Oil Co. had an office and a band once played protest songs outside about the Exxon-Valdez oil spill! (1989)

Valdez, ALASKA: Home of the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline, 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay. (Follow me there! Follow me there!) THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY REMAIN THE SAME.

(Sarah Palin's Alaska, TLC TV, 8-9pm, January 9th Episode: a trip to Valdez, where her husband used to work. The series is available on DVD from TLC TV website.)

Also Up Next

THE VIEW...Coming soon...this afternoon...LIVE from the Groton Library! (How can a place - the Town of Groton - feel so much like home to me?)

Up Next

UP NEXT: Poems from Corporate Life in NYC

"New York Revisited" (Ya always go back!)

"The Single Mom of Cactus County" (a novellette about a trip I took to Phoenix, Arizona in the early 90s)

Until next time,

Take care and thanx for reading!

Denise

"Tough Sell"

CIS
McGraw-Hill Financial Services Co.
1221 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY

DTS
Director of Marketing
North and South

Denise,

I would like to congratulate you on your outstanding effort in the 1989 Blood Drive. I realize that the task was not easy. How do you make getting stuck with a needle sound inviting? That's what I call a tough sell. Some how or other, you were able to make it inviting enough to attract eight people.

Congratulations on a fine job!!

cc: BC
AC
BC

(P.S. Did ya get the memo???...* * * :) {sic}

"How Much Does It Pay?"

(32 hits on New Year's Eve-Eve! Thanx, everyone!)  HOW MUCH DOES IT PAY?  In June 1987, my starting salary was $16,000 per year with a full benefits package.  By the time I left McGraw-Hill in October 1990, I was earning about $22,000 per year.  The only time I have ever been able to top this salary was as a High School English Teacher at Harvard H. Ellis Regional Vocational Technical School in Danielson, CT; where I earned about $33,000 per year with full benefits, in a one-year temporary position in Fall 1999. The insurance package was Anthem Blue Cross / Blue Shield. I received excellent healthcare and medical treatment at Medical Center of NE CT in Fall 1999 and at Backus Hospital in Spring 2000 as a result of being a recipient of this healthcare benefits package.  This is how I know that the public healthcare system sucks! However, I am very happy with the healthcare I have been receiving since Fall 2006. ("Talk about seven years bad luck!" '99-06)