39 Back to Albuquerque

When Dad finished the report the State Senate as well as House passed the new bills without any .opposition.   The bill was written to protect children.  There was a question of what Jim would do next. It turned out there was an opening on the staff at the Girls Reform School for a counselor and house parent.  I was still in college at the time.  My parents took the jobs.  Mom also had bookkeeping skills and was hired to keep the financial books.  I lived at the school but did not have any specific duties. 
     The girls ranged in age from 10 to 21.  We did not have any older that 16 in our building.  When the girls arrived, they were showered and de-liced.  A large group of the girls had been running a long time and their personal hygiene was poor.  The dirt was crusted on their bodies.
     Their eating habits were based on sandwiches.  They did not know how to use a knife and fork to cut things into smaller portions.  Chewing consisted of masticating food with an open mouth.  They were not enjoyable companions at the table when they first arrived.  This was the reception cottage of the Girls Reform School.  As a result Dad established a plan for gradual growth with goals in mind.
When they mastered knife and fork, use of napkin and milk drinking in small sips they were moved away from Dad to Mom's table.  The girls who had been there a while moved to my table.  Since I was taking classes at the University, they were self disciplined during the meals.  On occasion  a guy at school would ask me out on a date.  If he was someone I really liked, I would ask if he wanted to have dinner with my family.  Of course I would pass this through my parents approval.
     We had one girl, "Ce...."whose mother died during child birth of the seventh child.  She knew her grandfather had some money.  She stole $100 from her grandfather to buy food for the brothers and sisters and a blanket. She was sent to the Reform School for this act.  She also had a curvature of the spine.  Thanks to the Shriner's we were able to get help for her back problem.  Had she not been in the reform school, she probably would not get any assistance.
     We ate the same food as the girls and we all worked together to do the chores.  When we first moved in there was a hired cook who scalded the girls hands.  He was afraid he would catch something from one of them. 
     When it came time to study for my tests, I would go to the padded cell room.  I laid on the floor as it had cooper pipes running through to heat the place.  It was the most secluded place in the building.
     After my parents had stayed a year, Jim, my dad got a job as probation Officer in the town of Belen, New Mexico.  They bought property and settled down in an adobe house.  They finally felt at home.  The air was clear you could see the Manzano Mountains to the East and Elephant Butte to the South.
     There is a disease called San Juan Valley Fever that Mom got when they decided to move the kitchen sink to an outside wall with a window to look out of to see the valley.  From what the doctor  at the time said this is a disease similar to what the early Egypt explorers came down with.  It lives where there is no oxygen.  Luckily Mom got better.
     I had also had gotten sick but not with the same thing.  My Navy Reserve enlistment ran out.  This was one of the jobs I could count on to pay for my schooling.  When I finished my classes and qualified for graduation, I substitute taught for three months in the Belen School system and then enlisted in the Air Force as an enlisted airman WAF.