"Upon graduation from Mount Holyoke College in 1955, I expected to..."

 
My name is Anne Mazlish, and when I graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1955, I expected to have either a very important job, or to go on to graduate school. Both of those expectations, I would say, were momentarily dashed. We went to the Placement office several months before graduation and what was offered there were jobs with the CIA or possibly being a secretary if we learned to type and learn shorthand over the summer in a major corporation of something of that sort. Well, that's not what I had in mind. I wanted to be a journalist, and of course everyone pooh-poohed that because at that time it was a very hard job to get, still is, and then there was always the feeling that you wouldn't stay because you would get married, and that was a very strong feeling, as you know if you saw "Mona Lisa Smile. Many of my friends wanted to marry as quickly as possible, but I I didn't want to marry quickly, I wanted to try my wings, feel my oats. Mount Holyoke had been a very good experience for me Women were supported in wanting to do whatever they could; the feeling from the professors was that you could do it if you wanted to, but that wasn't what we were offered. By the end of our four years here, I remember that I did really think it. I've often talked with our friends from other colleges who were disappointed by what their opportunities were. I didn't go on to get a Master's degree because my family did not want to continue to pay for an education, and I didn't get a scholarship so I started job hunting in the Fall. I had gone and learned to type and had also learned some shorthand and it wasn't until the Fall that I really began to hunt for a job. I ended up as a secretary for the Women's Home Companion, a now defunct women's magazine. Well, I hated every second of it because all I did was sharpen pencils and type letters , and to me, that was so boring and unrewarding. And then a friend , who lived in Boston, asked me up for a weekend and one thing led to another, through conversations with a mother of another friend, I told her what I really would like to be doing and she said, "well, I know a lot of people in the newspaper work" and the next thing I knew I was introduced to someone who directed me towards the Boston Herald where I found a job. So, that was three months later and in December I moved to Boston and my life began and I've always thought that was the beginning. When I moved to Boston and my life began, I've always felt it was the beginning. Now, in my whole life I think I've fulfilled all the things I dreamed about at Mount Holyoke, starting with that job. I also did want to become a writer and I actually became a poet. I published a couple of volumes of poetry and then I also kept my interest in history, which was my major. I married a history professor, collaborating with him on some projects, minor collaboration. I started up my own business after my divorce. I had two children and when I was divorced, I began a tour business ---touring gardens around the world. I had become fairly interested, as an avocation, in gardening, and that business lasted for ten years and was pretty successful but I had to shut it down during a recession in '87. Then I went on to
're-found' a small history museum on Mount Desert Island and edited a nineteenth century diary and wrote a long forward. After that I got the chance to do my own history work too, That was the high point of all the career jobs I ever had because I did everything. I mean I was able to do the publicity and the fundraising and edit the diary and run meetings, make plans in all directions for the Society and use all my imagination and ability. So, since then, I've retired. I write still. I'm working on a biographical project. I don't know whether I'm going to complete it because I'm getting tired. The part I've most enjoyed in writing history has been the research. I've researched a number of biographies and I learned at Mount Holyoke how to really do research. It has become a great love. I think that about covers my life. Thank you very much.