Splendid Opportunities in Nursing

SurgicalTechCST · Mar 16, 2017

It was actually a total of 53 lessons - 52 if you don't count the first "introductory" lesson, where they talk about who they are, what they are going to do for you, what kind of person makes the best kind of nurse, study skills, etc., etc., ad infinitum..... For approximately one year, if you do one lesson per week, take the quizzes and exams on time, send things right back in the mail, etc. And this is to BE a Practical Nurse, from scratch.

You got quite a good deal starting out to be an LPN! But, then you have to consider the inflationary effects on $375 in the later '70's! I went to LPN school myself at 20, after my husband got out of the Air Force, and we moved to his home state of Indiana. I got into a program called CETA, which was almost like the Pell Grants but better, in that it not only paid for all school expenses, books, tuition, uniforms, caps, shoes, a quarterly allowance at the school bookstore for supplies, but also paid you minimum wage to go to school! You filled out a timesheet every week, just like a job, and turned it in to the school office, and I got a paycheck in the mail the next week. It was great. I have no idea what all it would have cost out of pocket, because this was at a Vocational-Technical College, and I didn't bother looking at it at the time. We moved to Indiana after he got discharged from the Air Force, and had a hard time finding work in the middle of noplace where his family all lived. So, we got pretty broke pretty quick, but found our way out of it in time. I found out about CETA, and the school, and his brother-in-law got him work at the Union trucking warehouse he drove out of. So, we did OK.

My husband and I married one year after I had graduated from high school (Class of '75) the end of July, 1976! He was a 20 year old two-striper in the Air Force, and I was 19.

My plans made early in high school to join the Air Force collapsed completely after spending the last two years in high school in the AFJRROTC program, doing three years work in two, becoming that Corps first female officer, having the first all girls drill team, etc. I went through the recruiter that contacted me after taking their entrance exams, the ASVABs, and acing every section but one, losing only one point on the other. Got as far as MEPs, in Richmond, VA to go in. Was supposed to go to Basic Training with one stripe already on my sleeve. Got sworn in, then started the Physicals. The very last part - after going through absolutely EVERYTHING else (!) - was the eye exam. I was nearsighted, and we all knew it, but I had no idea that I would test at Â¼ of a diopter over the limit! No such thing as LASIK yet, of course. They even sent me to a private, civilian ophthalmologist to see if he could get me any closer to the high limit. He couldn't do it either. :no: So, back I went, paperwork in hand, and ended up getting a medical discharge on the spot. And a bus ticket back to home on the coast, where I lived and grew up. On the Chesapeake Bay. In tears all the way. Longest:cry: bus ride of my life.

ANYWAY, back to the subject at hand - my husband and I got engaged six months later, and married the following July! At his rank, even including the new allowances he got for being a married Airman, for housing and his food, we only cleared a little more than $8,000! For the year! And I worked off and on, part time. Knee surgery after we married, in a military hospital - free at that time - kept me out of the labor force for about six months. But - we had a nice little apartment that included all utilities except phone for $145 a month. Besides car insurance, plates, gas, and groceries, we had NO expenses. We owned the car outright, since I had bought it from my mother with my own money I made waiting tables. No bills. Nada. Zip! And we paid our rent with the money we got for his BAQ - Bachelor Airman Quarters is what that stood for - and was part of that total. The Commissary was awesome - the base grocery - sold groceries at their cost, plus a very small margin, and they had bag boys working at every register, who worked strictly for tips. They were falling over each other for those jobs! I made sure to tip them generously, since I had waited tables in high school. Anyway, we didn't have kids for three years, so every penny we made was pretty much our own to do with as we pleased.

But looking back on that money now, it sure doesn't seem like much. But, at the time, since we had so few obligations, what we had was pretty much all ours! It was a ton of fun, and I almost wish we could go back there now. But that means we'd have to relive the past 40 years! If we could do it with knowledge of what was to come, I'd almost agree to it! We'd sure know what to avoid the second time around!

SurgicalTechCST · Mar 16, 2017

I think it'd be really interesting to read the textbooks from this program....

There's one. It's about 2" thick. That's it! 53 lessons, one a week, for one year!

RNOTODAY, BSN, RN · Apr 6, 2017

It was actually a total of 53 lessons - 52 if you don't count the first "introductory" lesson, where they talk about who they are, what they are going to do for you, what kind of person makes the best kind of nurse, study skills, etc., etc., ad infinitum..... For approximately one year, if you do one lesson per week, take the quizzes and exams on time, send things right back in the mail, etc. And this is to BE a Practical Nurse, from scratch.
You got quite a good deal starting out to be an LPN! But, then you have to consider the inflationary effects on $375 in the later '70's! I went to LPN school myself at 20, after my husband got out of the Air Force, and we moved to his home state of Indiana. I got into a program called CETA, which was almost like the Pell Grants but better, in that it not only paid for all school expenses, books, tuition, uniforms, caps, shoes, a quarterly allowance at the school bookstore for supplies, but also paid you minimum wage to go to school! You filled out a timesheet every week, just like a job, and turned it in to the school office, and I got a paycheck in the mail the next week. It was great. I have no idea what all it would have cost out of pocket, because this was at a Vocational-Technical College, and I didn't bother looking at it at the time. We moved to Indiana after he got discharged from the Air Force, and had a hard time finding work in the middle of noplace where his family all lived. So, we got pretty broke pretty quick, but found our way out of it in time. I found out about CETA, and the school, and his brother-in-law got him work at the Union trucking warehouse he drove out of. So, we did OK.
My husband and I married one year after I had graduated from high school (Class of '75) the end of July, 1976! He was a 20 year old two-striper in the Air Force, and I was 19.
My plans made early in high school to join the Air Force collapsed completely after spending the last two years in high school in the AFJRROTC program, doing three years work in two, becoming that Corps first female officer, having the first all girls drill team, etc. I went through the recruiter that contacted me after taking their entrance exams, the ASVABs, and acing every section but one, losing only one point on the other. Got as far as MEPs, in Richmond, VA to go in. Was supposed to go to Basic Training with one stripe already on my sleeve. Got sworn in, then started the Physicals. The very last part - after going through absolutely EVERYTHING else (!) - was the eye exam. I was nearsighted, and we all knew it, but I had no idea that I would test at Â¼ of a diopter over the limit! No such thing as LASIK yet, of course. They even sent me to a private, civilian ophthalmologist to see if he could get me any closer to the high limit. He couldn't do it either. So, back I went, paperwork in hand, and ended up getting a medical discharge on the spot. And a bus ticket back to home on the coast, where I lived and grew up. On the Chesapeake Bay. In tears all the way. Longest:cry: bus ride of my life.
ANYWAY, back to the subject at hand - my husband and I got engaged six months later, and married the following July! At his rank, even including the new allowances he got for being a married Airman, for housing and his food, we only cleared a little more than $8,000! For the year! And I worked off and on, part time. Knee surgery after we married, in a military hospital - free at that time - kept me out of the labor force for about six months. But - we had a nice little apartment that included all utilities except phone for $145 a month. Besides car insurance, plates, gas, and groceries, we had NO expenses. We owned the car outright, since I had bought it from my mother with my own money I made waiting tables. No bills. Nada. Zip! And we paid our rent with the money we got for his BAQ - Bachelor Airman Quarters is what that stood for - and was part of that total. The Commissary was awesome - the base grocery - sold groceries at their cost, plus a very small margin, and they had bag boys working at every register, who worked strictly for tips. They were falling over each other for those jobs! I made sure to tip them generously, since I had waited tables in high school. Anyway, we didn't have kids for three years, so every penny we made was pretty much our own to do with as we pleased.
But looking back on that money now, it sure doesn't seem like much. But, at the time, since we had so few obligations, what we had was pretty much all ours! It was a ton of fun, and I almost wish we could go back there now. But that means we'd have to relive the past 40 years! If we could do it with knowledge of what was to come, I'd almost agree to it! We'd sure know what to avoid the second time around!

Thanks for sharing, I truly enjoyed your journey, your story!!!