Dorothy

Dorothy, of native stock, the only child of a widowed mother, was accustomed to every luxury. She finished high school at sixteen and planned to take a business course in some college of Commerce and Finance. On account of reduced income, "my plans were all shot," she says, "the banks closed and we had oodles of bank stock and the rest in real estate." She is now nineteen and would like to get into newspaper work as she was good in English at school and feels that she can write well. Except for clerking in a gift shop during the Christmas holidays, she has never worked, and is not seriously looking for a position now. However, she says, "If I were trained for some type of work and could get a job, it would make things easier." Her home is pleasant and she has admirably adjusted herself to the changes consequent upon a smaller income. She says, "Our home life is much sweeter. I have been brought closer to my mother. I am not as selfish as I was three years ago. I do a great deal of the housework and part of the cooking. Three years ago I did absolutely nothing . . . ."

Source: Rachel Stutsman, What of Youth Today?, 42

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