To live is to progress – lucky for us. I think back to the days when I was a poor college student. While I initially worked in the dorm cafeteria on kitchen duty, I chose to better my situation – after all, I was the recipient of several High School typing awards. I was soon hired by the Steno Pool and assigned to various work settings all over campus. Growing up in the country unexposed to smoke, I was in for a rude awakening. Working in an office in the seventies meant exposure to smoke – Lots of it. Everywhere I worked – Jesse Hall, the University Hospital, Engineering School, and University Press – smoke abounded! I was constantly inhaling smoke. And as for my clothes and hair at the end of the day, they were disgusting! Always a hard worker, I stayed focused on my work as my co-workers and/or supervisor took frequent smoke breaks, unfortunately in the same room. Always healthy as a child, I soon experienced my first cluster headaches, then migraines, thus began my history of frequent headaches. Given clerical wages were much higher than kitchen wages, money I sorely needed, I quietly stuck it out as it appeared this was business as usual.
