J
is for
JOBS
BY ALYSSA
(FIFTH GRADER, 1996/97)



There was many jobs for people in Virginia, Minnesota in the old days. There were iron ore mining jobs for men. There were logging jobs for lumberjacks. Farming was another job. Men also worked in sawmills. Women were housewives.(Which was a full time job.) Men got most of the paying jobs(even though the men wouldn't admit it.) Women could also work in laundries, as seamstresses, maids, cooks, etc.

One job for girls and young women was working at the Troy Steam Laundry. It was long hours and low pay (but it was better than nothing). People who had little money during the Great Depression could go there and get their laundry cleaned there. The girls lived in a boarding house upstairs.(See letter B)

There weren't a lot of good paying jobs open for women then. Most of those jobs were for men. It wasn't fair on my opinion. Both men and women are equal. Men, women, children, black, white, disabled, different, we are all equal. People thought differently back then though.





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MARCH 1997