Nightime Dreams Are Imaginary, Daytime Dreams Can Be Gratified Elita Sohmer Clayman

When I was the assistant to the CEO of a large printing company from 1952-1960, the boss liked to give a chance to some people who had minor problems with the law. He checked them out and the few he hired turned out to be excellent employees. Several advanced and in later years became foremen’s or supervisors in their division of the plant. They married, had children and became vital and fine members of the community.

One day, the two bosses decided they needed way back then in 1953 what was called an efficiency manager. So they hired a man,Mr.H. and he came in all smiling and jovial and tried to let the employees think he was Captain Good Person. He sat each one down individually and asked them how they liked working there, what were their peeves and complaints. The dumb ones had confidence in telling Mr. H all about their complaints of working there and if they liked or disliked the two owners, Meyer and Dave.

Then Mr. H. sat down with M and D and told each and every peeve, complaint and comment the particular employee told him. He would advise them to get rid of that person. M and D were quite nice employers and tried to remedy the problems, if they were legitimate from the employee. I do not believe they terminated anyone. Mr. H. told them he would now screen the new applicants because he was better in judging someone’s resume or could tell how to hire adequate help. The first man he hired was named Jesse. After Jesse had been there for about two weeks, he called in sick one Friday. Fridays were pay days and we paid in cash. The envelopes with the money were there with a paper telling the taxes taken out and etc. Each man came in, got his envelope and signed that he received it. I was sitting there dispensing them, when a woman came in and said she was Jesse’s wife and came for the money. We looked up his application and there was her name Matilda Jean Smith. So I asked Meyer and he said sure, let her sign and give it to her. About two hours later, a lady came in and said she was Jesse’s wife and came for his paycheck. We asked her name and she said it was Mary Jane Smith. I called Meyer out and he told her that Matilda Smith had already been there. She started to holler that she was his wife and Meyer said your name is not on his application. She walked out in a huff and when Jesse came back to work the following Monday, Mr. H and M and D confronted him. He admitted he had two wives and he was immediately fired. A week later Mr. H., the high class, intellectual and motivated efficiency expert was shall we say terminated? His investigations and knowledge on the employees he hired did not turn out even as well as M and D did without lots of fanfare to get the fine crew they had now. Even though a few had admitted to some minor problems with the law; they came in and were rejuvenated and new life was breathed into them and they turned out to be remarkable workers. Many stayed until retirement time came to them.

Sometimes, we think we have to go to the highest college on the best college list and the most expensive one too, to receive a good education. Now day’s lots of kids who do not have the resources to go right away to four year colleges; attend community colleges for the first two years and then do the third and fourth years at a four year university. I know a well-known doctor who went to medical school in a foreign country and then came here and is a very highly thought of specialty doctor with privileges in many first class hospitals. He still received a fine education there and then did intern and residency work at the regular hospitals in this country. He took his education seriously and even in a foreign medical school, he must have learned at a good level, because he passed the state medical boards in this country and went on to excel in his post medical school work.

Many years ago, ophthalmologists did not like optometrists putting eye drops in patients’ eyes because they were the medical doctors and the optometrists did not have the M.D. by their name. Now days, many ophthalmologist offices have optometrists working with them as partners or associates. They have discovered that the optometrists are knowledgeable, been trained and educated well enough to work alongside of them. Years ago, chiropractors were thought of as a breed unto themselves for the type of work they did. Now days, I have seen some orthopedic practices that have chiropractors working alongside of them. There are now nurse practitioners and physician assistants who work with the doctors and are as knowledgeable as the regular physician is. It seems all these folks get their training, perhaps a different way, but all seem to end up knowing equal information about the job they are trained for.

The public seems to benefit from all these different professions which are now being melded, united and merged together to form a better group of helping hands to the public who are their patients.

There is a theory now that one should not pay out in loans to go to college for four or six years and come out with such debt, which is more than they can make per year of their yearly tuition and fees.

Community colleges can be a good start for the first two years for someone who cannot afford the high tuitions and fees that the fancier and more costly universities charge. People who want to go to college should look into the community colleges for their first or even second year at a lower cost and they can get a two year degree called associate degree. I got one like that at age thirty-nine and then went on to a four year university. Let me tell you, that many of the professors I had in those five years that it took me to do full time two year’s work, because I had two young children, home responsibilities and a widowed mom I had to help do some things; were more proficient than some professors at the university.

You can make a successful college time as lucrative and rewarding anywhere you attend a higher learning institution. It is you, the student, who takes what he learns and responds with studying and hard work and in return, absorbs all there is to acquire and comprehend.

Even in my beloved ballroom dancing of lessons I took for about thirty years from various coaches; you can find and excel with a variety of teachers who have different experiences and education in that subject too. Some dance teachers are more advanced and they themselves keep on learning from dancers in the businesses, who continue also to learn different methods of teaching and the new dances coming out. Lots of the more advanced dancers yearn to go to England where they can learn they think from the master, because in England they start to teach the little kids very early to ballroom dance.

I knew a young lady who unfortunately was quite ill and her last wish was to go with her husband to take some advanced ballroom dance lessons from a master dancer over there. Her husband wanted to grant her this final wish that she had been thinking a lot about before her illness. She had a remission for a few months and off they went to England and she took about fifteen hours of learning with her husband too. After she passed on, we went to the funeral and this was mentioned in the eulogy of how this last wish was given to her and her joy in accomplishing it, even in her sick times. There was not a dry eye in the church when we dancers heard this. We had known she was going, but we never realized how much it meant to her in her last months of life. When she was in England and learning, she forgot for a few hours about the illness that was taking her life away. She was extremely happy; her husband told us and her dream was finally accomplished.

Each of us has our ‘dreams’ and whenever, we can get them fulfilled, it is nice. I always say that dreams can become reality and then it is a fulfilled dream. Whatever college one may choose at college choosing time, you can make the best out of your learning and even go onto higher degrees of education. If the school has a good reputation and it is a lower cost of tuition, you can still obtain your dream education, if only you strive hard enough to want it. Opportunity knocks on our doors is an old expression from my younger years and even though people like Mr. H. mentioned above think they are masters of everything, they are not. You are the master or mistress of your own luck and of course, sometimes, we get a boost from somewhere; but if we do not, we can boost our self as high as we want and never give up your dream. Nighttime dreams are only sleep events. Freud said “dreams are imaginary gratification   of unconscious wishes.” I say we can make these conscious wishes come true and we will be certainly gratified and surely be very happy.