College Income and Expenses ~ Larry misunderstood the workings of scholarships, assuming one had to be an A student to qualify. There weren’t many in those days available anyway. It cost about $1,500 to go to school, and that’s how much he earned each year to pay his way. Between his powerhouse job, working in Dad’s store, delivering furniture in the summer, and working for the engineering company, he made do. Hashing in the sorority houses and restaurants kept him fed. He changed his major from music in his junior year, graduating June 1955 with a double major in psychology and philosophy. My brother wanted to be a teacher but decided not to teach music. He said he couldn’t stand the noise.
He kept a detailed log of his income and expenses over the years:
1951, according to his tax returns, he made $1,035.98 at the powerhouse in Moccasin (at a $1.00 an hour) and $38.44 working in Dad’s store (at 50 cents an hour).
1952 he made $122.52 working for Peterson Engineering for two months. He also worked for the Sonora Furniture Company during the summer and made $117.50, and at the powerhouse again for half the summer making $555.37. He also had a lot of small part-time jobs that he didn’t have to pay taxes on. In his second year at San Jose State, he sold his complete stamp and coin collections, which were worth a couple of hundred dollars, to buy his 1937 Dodge.
1953 he earned $1,120.47 at the Burger Bar, $337.75 at his summer job at the American Can Company loading cans into boxcars, and $425.25 again working for Peterson Engineering.
1954 he made a total of $1,548.83 working for Richmond Chase Canning Company ($200.43), Holiday Drive-In Restaurant ($468.80), Peterson Engineering ($302.25), The Burger Bar ($490.57) and Sprouse-Reitz ($87.78 at Dad’s store on Haight Street at Christmas time).
Marian McLellan, SJS 1954
1955 his tax returns reflected his earnings as follows: Peterson Engineering ($132.75), Sprouse-Reitz ($18), Ohio University ($496.50), Holiday Drive-In ($449.75), and Richmond Chase ($327.95)
1954 and 1955 he included Marian’s income (they weren’t yet married). Marian graduated from San Jose State in 1954 at age 21, then got a job teaching elementary school in Ventura, California. Larry graduated the next year and went on to graduate school for his Masters Degree in Ohio.
to be continued…
© 2018. Catherine Sevenau.
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Gordon Clemens says
I owned the old car as I could not work without transportation and I was entirely self-supported. Our parents were bankrupt and could not contribute anything to a college education, especially for something so useless as a music major or a psychology and philosophy major. My graduate school expenses were paid by an Ohio University scholarship.
Barbara Jacobsen says
Wow. I remember making 75 cents/hr. working at the Pittsburgh paper mill in the summer of ’54. We appreciated every penny back then! Learned about hard work.