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From: Gunars
Date: 10/12/00
Time: 8:15:19 PM
Remote Name: 12.13.226.16
Tom,
That was a good question.
When we immigrated from war torn Europe in 1950, I was thirteen. We settled in Marshalltown, Iowa (population 19,500). My father had been a doctor in Europe. To practice medicine in the United States he had to go back to being an intern. The hospital where he got his internship was in Des Moines, Iowa and he was paid his room and board and $75 a month.
Therefore, a few weeks after arriving in Marshalltown, my father got me a job delivering papers. This was done using a bicycle or, when the snow got too deep, on foot. Every week I had to collect for the papers. This consisted on going to every subscribers house, ringing their doorbell or knocking on their doors, introducing myself and telling each customer how much they owed. Since I stuttered very severely, this was the hardest part of the job. However, there was no choice for my family or me. Without me earning my share of money, my father would not have been able to take the State Medical Boards and practice medicine.
I started with a morning paper route of 52 papers. Then added another route in the morning, and ,later, one in the evening, which together with my Sunday customers approached 200. This meant that every week I visited close to 200 houses and collected money. Some people paid by the month, a few left envelopes, but I came in face to face contact with at least 160 persons every week. Most of the times these were short exchanges:
"H-h-h-hi! I-I am here to c-------------------ollect for the paper." "How much do I owe you?" "Th-th-th-thirty cents fffffffffffffffffffffor the daily paper. .........................and fifteen for the Su-su-Sunday. That will be f-f-f-orty five cents total." "There it is."
Other times:
"C-c-ccccccccccccccollect." "How much?" "I------it is for tuh-tuh-two weeks. Ni-ni-ninety cents." "Keep the change, kid."
And other times I was asked different questions and engaged in conversation.
Sometimes the conversations were not pleasant, since, I had missed delivering a paper. Even as a youngster I was fallible.
Most of the people were very pleasant. Some were gruff. But I believed that is the way they acted to everybody.
My boss was super friendly. Shortly after I started to work for him, I was invited to his house for a dinner. Since, in Europe we were practically starving, I ate so much that I threw up. And he was even understanding about that. It was a delicious turkey.
I stuttered severely. Sometimes my silent blocks lasted for a whole breath. I had to take another breath. And if forcing oneself to talk without using any techniques or trying to change one's attitudes would have helped, I probably should have gotten better. However, we can learn from sports, that when you practice something wrongly, you don't get better. You might even get worse. And I was avoiding, substituting words, forcing sounds, spacing out during speaking, not working on my attitudes... So I stayed just the same. My speech did not improve nor did my stuttering get worse.
The way my stuttering improved...but that is another question. If you want to know what helped me, you will have to ask.
Gunars