Bridget (The Bridget Series) (4 page)

The yelp emanating
from Miss Frances could be heard a block away.

Miss Frances was going to ring the school bell, but Rev. Caldwell told the teacher he thought that might scare the residents into thinking there was an emergency.

Instead, Rev. Caldwell made the formal announcement at Sunday’s church service. “Many of you have already heard the good news, but I would like to officially announce that our Orphan Train girl has surpassed all expectations and succeeded. Bridget, we are all so proud of you.”

The congregation clapped and Bridget half-heartedly smiled her thanks for their approval. She wondered what weight those words ‘Orphan Train’ carried in the congregation being pleased at her success.

As far as she was concerned winning a full scholarship should have been considered an accomplishment for any student. She feared that she would never be viewed as anything other than an Orphan Train child.

It was Rev.
Caldwell who had come to their home a few days earlier to tell her parents that Bridget was one of three to receive a full scholarship. Bridget hadn’t been home at the time. She was running an errand for her mother, taking some apples and potatoes to the neighboring Vaughn family who lived about a mile away.

She returned home with one of Mrs. Vaughn’s coconut cakes. The two families frequently exchanged food. If one had harvested too much of one food, the Hansens and the Vaughns would work out some type of an exchange. It seemed to work out well for both families.

When Bridget arrived her mother told her the good news, hugged her, and the two danced around the room. Suddenly her Pa limped outside. As the door closed he looked at Bridget and only said one word, “Good.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t have danced in front of him,” suggested Bridget.

“I’ll talk to him,” said Bridget’s Mother as she glanced towards the closed door. “After the accident … after he couldn’t walk right and couldn’t dance at the weekly dances anymore, he became a different man,” was her hesitate, melancholy reply. Then, as if speaking to herself, she softly said, “We so used to enjoy those dances.”

Getting ready to
move to Canyonville gave Bridget mixed feelings. She was anxious to make something of herself. Yet, she would miss this woman whom she had come to know as ‘mother’. Mother and daughter gathered Bridget’s few possessions and prepared them for packing.

It wasn’t the first time that Bridget’s life would be forever changed by a train ride. Only, this time Bridget looked forward to the future.

Bridget was so excited that she had little memory of the train ride. At the Canyonville depot she recognized a few faces from the testing session. Most of the students had come from other parts of the state and would return to their hometown to find work. Only Bridget and the other two scholarship winners would remain in Canyonville after graduation.

All of the
students would call each other by their first names, placing a ‘Miss’ in front. Bridget would be called Miss Bridget. Students would wear black skirts and white blouses, which the school provided. Each student would also wear a black apron, so that if the typewriter ribbon ink came off on their fingers, the students wouldn’t get their clothes stained with the permanent color.

There was a lot of nervous giggling when the new group of students went on a field trip to Miss Nancy’s Shoppe, which sold ready made clothing including hats, gloves and shoes. Important women shopped at Miss Nancy’s. If Miss Nancy didn’t have what you wanted in stock, there was a big catalogue where shoppers could order what they wanted. Bridget discovered that you could order clothing in different colors and sizes. “The best people buy here,” bragged Miss Nancy. “The mayor’s wife, the doctor’s wife, the wife of the bank president. All of the fashionable wives of successful men.”

The girls tried on their school uniforms. Bridget looked at herself in the mirror and actually liked how she looked. Adult. Proper. Smart.

She ran her fingers through her hair and momentarily wondered how she could fix it to make herself look pretty.

Then her thoughts returned to putting on her apron. She needed to concentrate on mastering the courses. Fixing her hair would have to wait.

School would last
for four months, Monday through Saturday. Rules were strict. The three scholarship winners would stay at Greenview Manor. They would walk together to the school and return together in the evening. There was no free time, except on Sundays—after church.

As the weeks
went by Bridget became friendly with Miss Opal and Miss Violet.

Bridget didn’t want to get too close for fear they would ask her questions about her background. Fortunately, most of their conversation centered on school—or boys.

Neither Miss Opal nor Miss Violet had a beau. They were hoping that being able to find a good job would help them meet a suitable husband. Bridget longed to be just ‘Bridget’, rather than ‘Bridget Orphan Train’. Nobody in Canyonville knew of her beginning. She, too, wondered what it would be like to have a husband and children. Bridget smiled as she remembered the day her mother had taught her to use apple peels to see the first letter of the name of the man she would marry. She remembered her peel had formed a “D”.

Getting too caught up in her dreams, Bridget banished those thoughts from her mind. She needed to be able to take care of herself. Bridget decided she had to concentrate on her studies—learning how to be a help to a man in an office—not looking for a man to marry.

In school there
was a lot to learn that had nothing to do with a typewriter. The class in Deportment and Office Etiquette seemed to take up almost as much time as learning how to type and file.

They were taught that if their boss walked into the office smelling of tobacco, they should keep an atomizer in their desk drawer filled with either Lilac Vegetal or Bay Rum men’s cologne. They would purchase that from the barber shop and not expect to be reimbursed, because it was for their benefit. When they helped their boss off with his coat, they should gently spray the coat once, but never more than twice, with the atomizer. That would make the office air easier to breathe.

They should never walk into their boss’s office without first knocking and being told to enter.

They should never repeat anything their boss tells them or anything they overhear. Anything that is said in the office is private.

They should be quick to fetch their boss coffee or tea or whatever beverage he requested. If they had a boss that preferred hard spirits and that lingering odor was offensive to them, the class received a demonstration on how to put some vinegar on a handkerchief and breathe through the cloth. The vinegar would mask the smell of the alcohol.

Bridget wondered what she had gotten herself into, but she was determined to see it through and succeed.

G
RADUATION day was approaching. Bridget
had received a letter from her mother saying that Pa had given her permission to come to the ceremony.

Bridget was thrilled. That meant that her mother would also be able to see where she would be living and meet the family, Dr. and Mrs. Schmidt. Bridget had just learned that she would also be working for Dr. Schmidt, since he was one of the sponsors of the school program.