Here’s the link to the original story by Lynn K. McCloskey about the Grace Ball Secretarial School in San Francisco: http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/2006/11/08/1287/
And an email from Margie Burns who attended the school in the late 1960s:
I went there, too, met Grace Ball herself and Ruth. Except it was Mrs. Roof “like the roof on a house.”
I remember the typing teacher, though not her name. She, too, was one of the Ancient Ones. Of course we were in our 20s (early, early if that).
I use my shorthand to this day. Have lost a lot but still use it.
I rented my own apartment in San Francisco and rode the cable car to school daily. I had friends who lived in/boarded.
My experience wasn’t as bad as hers . I don’t remember being pinned to the wall by Grace but rather sitting across the desk from her.
The school was directly over an art gallery; the drug store was on the corner of Powell and Sutter. Unfortunately, it didn’t last the entire year I was thre. Popular meting place before and after class, though.
I must have been there 1967, 1968. When did the writer attend? It’s just possible we were in the same class.
From Margie S.