Hundreds, probably thousands, of people have been able to gain a college degree by taking advantage of the Houston job market and attending the University of Houston in pursuit of that diploma. Two of those sheepskins have a permanent place of honor in my household — Life Mate’s and mine.
Of course, what I write here is based on my experiences and knowledge in nearly eight decades of living.
Some of the jobs I worked had drawbacks that included teasing, but I wasn’t going to be deterred. That trip toward a diploma was extremely important.
My particular journey actually began at another school — what was then Sam Houston State Teachers College, a 1955 enrollment of 1900, give or take a couple of dozen. I had a meager scholarship and landed a first semester job as an evening cook at the Club Café across the street from the campus.
My luck soared at the beginning of the second semester when I got a job as Sam Houston’s sports publicity director. It was a time-consuming job but was in line with my journalism major and my interests. Anyway it got me out of the kitchen.
I managed, with just a little help from my parents, to get in two years there before running out of money, so I took a job as news editor of my hometown paper. After a year there, I managed to save a little and buy a five-year-old car, which I left with my mother since they’d stumbled upon some hard times. I went off to the University of Houston, where I gained two $500 scholarships (one for each semester of my junior year). I knew I’d still have to work so I landed a job as secretary-receptionist in the UH Journalism and Graphic Arts Department.
In 1958, that drew snickers from some people, including a dean of the school who failed to identify himself when I answered his phone call: “Ho, ho, ho! I didn’t know they had a male secretary!,” which drew a slammed down phone. Fortunately, I didn’t lose my $1-an-hour job, my $5 a week spot as copy editor of the weekly student newspaper or the scholarship.
The second semester brought a better job, that as general manager of a small weekly newspaper in suburban Galena Park. Mom and Dad helped me get a rusted-out 1952 Chevrolet coupe which carried me back and forth between my room at my aunt and uncle’s house, work and the UH campus, where I’d become a full night-time student. Oh, and it finally got me off those dang city buses.
Heck, I got to where I was feeling flush and I went to a good Galena Park auto dealer advertiser and traded my rusty Chevy for a brand spanking new 1960 Morris Minor two-door coupe. I was introduced to the great American way of financing and monthly payments. That British Motor Corp. vehicle, their answer to the German Volkswagen “bug,” got me through college and beyond.
Three months before graduation, I landed a magazine associate editor’s job at Texas Industry, the official publication of what was then the Texas Manufacturers Association, a lobby group for business.
And, that little Morris put in considerable mileage with traveling around the state to do issues of the magazine on Texas cities and their industries. Plus, it enabled me to finish UH, listen to a droning graduation speech from Oveta Culp Hobby, then publisher of the Houston Post daily newspaper, and the first U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
I love both Sam Houston and the University of Houston and it gives me the distinction of rooting for two colleges earnestly.
However, UH finished imbuing in me what my parents had started — an appreciation for a college education and for the opportunities to work and support myself while I was attending school.
Willis Webb is a retired community newspaper editor-publisher of more than 50 years experience.
