NY City

The return to the city was the easiest move I had made so far. I checked into a hotel for women way up on the East side of Manhattan. The rent was either seven or eight dollars a week. I had made the decision to go to the University of Minnesota. I wanted to begin studying to become a nurse. I had already filled in my application and needed only a letter of recommendation. I should have asked my dentist in Princeton before I left there. It seemed that I would be more apt to get accepted if the letter came from a medical sort of person.

First morning I had breakfast in the coffee shop near the hotel. A woman came by with a tray with a cup of coffee and a donut. She looked over all the filled tables and I asked her to sit at my table. She happened to be Swedish and we were soon embroiled in a long conversatiion where did you grow up? and when did you come? and what are your plans now? We were very democratic and took turns asking and answering. But now we had arrived at a vital point for me. Did she knnow anyone whose name was big anough to carry weight in Minnesota.

She did. She said: I certainly do. Go down to 42nd street at one o'clock, go East and there you will find THE HOSPITAL FOR THE RUPTURED AND CRIPPLED, ask for Dr. Hansson. He is Swedish and he is a very nice person. He will help you. I put on my best togs and rode the bus down Lexington Ave.

At one o'clock Dr Hansson strode into the waiting room where all his paients were waiting to see him. His secretary arranged for me to go ahead of all of them and soon I was at his desk at the end of the room. I asked him if he would be kind enough to write a rcommendation. I want to go to the School of Nursing at the Univercity of Minnesota. I know you don't know me but I have my school records with me. He read them and he seemed to know the School I had attended.

And then he said 'Why do you want to become a nurse? Why don't you become a Physical Therapist. I said I had heard that his School of Physichal Therapy required two years of Physical Education or you had to be a Registered Nurse. He said 'you have the equivalent of two years of college and even though it was not the same as Phys Ed, you look smart enough to catch on.

I asked how much it would cost. He told me. In my head I quickly figured out that I had enough for the tuition and ten dollars a week for room, bus fare and stockings for the ensuing year. We shook hands. My near future was decided.