After I survived Social Security Orientation Class at Woodlawn, I was assigned to a Claims Authorization Class held in the Standard Oil Building in downtown Baltimore. This was a kind-of mini skyscraper, the front of which dropped off sharply from the front to the back. This meant that there was a deep and dangerous incline for automobiles to manipulate, especially in the Winter.
This was the Winter of 1960 and followed the very mild Winter of 1959. In fact, it was so mild in 1959, that the Baltimore Maintenance Department had sold all of their snow-removal equipment. We students, sitting ten stories up, were sometimes treated to a humorous sight, especially on one day when a sudden blizzard showed up around ten AM. A blanket of six or more inches of snow filled the streets in front and around the Standard Oil Building. What to d? No snow removal equipment.
They did what they thought was the right thing to do.. they brought over a fire truck, opened a hydrant and poured water down on the snow packed streets. This was a marvelous sight to see, because cars were still allowed to turn the corner from the front of the building to the back.. And did they slip! It was hilarious to see these cars skidding down the street from top to bottom. It looked like a lot of fun. Luckily, nobody was hurt, although some cars got a bit banged up. We students, mainly New Englanders, laughed and laughed.
The class we were attending was taught by a guy named Marvin K., a nice, funny guy who really did not want to teach the class. In spite of that, I think he was a great teacher.
The attendees, however, were a different story. One guy was the son of a famous General and was just trying different things to try to find out if he could do any of them. While most of us were trim and slim, he was fat and slick. He dropped out after just a couple of weeks.
Another student was an ex professor from a Vermont college. He had a definite theory about learning. As we did case studies, he would make up all kinds of erroneous results, feeling that his reviewer would let him know what he did wrong, and in that way, he would learn the correct way. This was ok as long as we had 100 % review of our case results. Some of his cases bypassed the review somehow, and certain beneficiaries found themselves with enormous monthly payments, some found themselves cut off from benefits. Hopefully, most of these bad cases were caught eventually.
The Professor was fired and when they emptied his desk, they found error slips by the hundreds.
A couple of our students were retired military men. They were very careful in their work and became excellent employees.
One of the ladies, came from Ashville, North Carolina and was a Mozart expert. She taught me some about Don Giovanni. Very cultured person. Unfortunately, she died shortly after the class from breast cancer.
A young college graduate was the best student; however, he got homesick for Alabama and left after a few weeks.
Among the few survivors were a couple of guys who became friends with me. Don Q and Jim C., both from Massachusetts. Our families remained friends for many years. There are some nice stories about these nice Irish guys that I will relate later.
Somehow, I managed to graduate from this class and get assigned as a certified Claims Authorizer for the Social Security Administration.
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