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Personal
View of Hazel Trapp Salmon
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I began working for the Weather Bureau in 1941 at the Washington
National Airport, but I also worked at the Anchorage, Alaska, Regional
Office. My name at that time was Hazel Trapp. My husband was with
the Weather Bureau, and I had heard from him that they needed new
people. I worked for the Bureau because of the good hours and salary,
and nearness to home. My starting salary was $1440 per annum. I left
the Weather Bureau in 1944 when my first child was born.
My previous
experience had been in retail sales. At the Weather Bureau I did clerical
work - no training was necessary. Working there was not very demanding.
It was like play compared to sales. I don"t recall any highs or lows.
If the times were the same,I would do it again. I was received as
part of a family, and the morale on station was good.
I worked
daytime shifts, eight hours a day and forty hours a week. It was a
Regional Office with five women and seven men. In Alaska it was one
big family. People from the outlying stations stayed in our homes.
One couple stayed with us two months - until housing became available.
I took leave and cared for two Weather Bureau children when the mother
was ill. We looked out for one another - Family!
