Adios Torrance
A large portion of my life was invested in the Torrance Unified School District. In a way I grew up there. Both of our girls went to school there and both finished high school in Torrance. However, each girl had a different school experience. Carol attended North High, then Torrance High before finishing at South High in the first graduating class from that school. Kay went to South High all four years and did much better than Carol. It does not help children to be shuffled around from one school to another.
Our home neighborhood was quite stable with mostly middle class families. Our house was small but each girl had a bedroom. The yard was large and fully developed. It was well used by kids from all around the area. Guin did a wonderful job of making that yard beautiful. I thought our home was an ideal place for a couple of kids to grow up.
It was while we lived in Torrance that hypertension became a problem for me. Not only did my blood pressure go up but I had great problems sleeping at night. I would find myself looking forward to and worrying about solving problems connected with my work. My doctor, who was a neighbor, attended a Board of Education meeting which I thought was rather an easy one but which my doctor thought was "impossible." He said, "There is no way in the world I would work for those idiots!" He then recommended that I get busy with some kind of hobby that would allow me to relax and get away from my work.
Guin and I talked about a mountain cabin but the drive there and the maintenance work seemed too much. With the ocean a short distance away, we decided to get a boat and that was just the medicine I needed. I usually took someone out fishing with me but sometimes I would just go alone. There is no way a person can fret and fuss about his job when he is out on the open ocean catching good game fish.
As for my work, I felt productively busy and able to handle my job even though there was always pressure from one thing or another. When it became obvious to me that the Board of Education was not going to raise the Superintendent's salary, I gave some thought to going to another school district. At about the time I was thinking of moving, the Superintendent gave me an unwarranted dressing down during a meeting of the full staff. I appreciated the fact that he was under great pressure from the Board but there was no way I was going to tolerate undeserved abuse. Since he was going out of town to a meeting I went to his office and told him I was leaving the district. Of course he did not believe it but I was almost sure I could get the job in Inglewood so I went there and applied for it. I knew the Superintendent and some of the Board members. They were delighted to have me in their district. By the time the Superintendent was back in town my letter of resignation was in the Personnel Office.
I do not want to make a big deal out of this incident because all the Superintendent did was to give me a little push in a direction I was already leaning. It turned out to be a blessing since I was able to improve my salary by a large amount. I also had the honor of selecting my successor in Torrance.
A fuss of this sort is not unusual in any organization but my reputation as one who always supported his boss was well known and I expected to be supported by him in return. There had been many sharp disagreements with the Superintendent but all, except one, had been in the privacy of his office or mine and that one resulted in "Adios Torrance."