During the Depression the Pantagraph worked extra hard to raise morale in the twin cities. One interesting column that appeared for a short time was called "The Other Fellow's Job," which featured a job or a particular person who performed an interesting job and was written by Frank Bill, the agriculture editor. (It seems no one did just ONE job on the Pantagraph!)
Alma Ehrlich was born in Bloomington and worked here as a young woman. She was a stenographer at Campbell Holton, the wholesale grocery firm, and she was a laboratory worker at the Farmer's Creamery on Center Street.
She appeared in "The Other Fellow's Job" when she was working at Farmer's Creamery. There, she tested the milk that was sold by the farmers to the creamery. As pointed out by Bill, the company did not buy milk based on volume, but on butterfat content. This is just another of those quaint jobs of yesteryear that have now gone the way of the gas station attendant. Here is a photo of Alma testing the milk at the Farmer's Creamery.
Alma was an active young woman. She was a member of the Walther league, an organization for the youth of the Lutheran Church. When the league put on a drama in 1930, Alma played the lead in "No Account David." Alma married Harold Mason, a "butter printer" at the Farmer's Creamery. After they were married Alma stayed home with their children and Harold eventually started his own refrigeration business in Bloomington.
In another "Other Fellow's Job" article Frank Bill focused on barbers. He pointed out that there were 200 barbers in 1935, which I found an astounding number! There were just 36,000 people in Bloomington Normal in 1930 and I can't think that there are 200 barbers NOW, when the combined population is nearly quadrupled. The safety razor was invented in the 19th century and Gillette razors were marketed from 1903 on. The electric razor was invented in the 1920s, but many homes would not have electricity for decades. One would think that these conveniences, easily used by any man, would have put many barbers out of business. Short hair cuts, however, require frequent maintenance, so perhaps the barbers were safe until the 1960s when some men wore their hair very long and others dispensed with closely cut hair.
The hospitals in town came in for interest from Mr. Bill in 1934. He photographed the surgical supervisor, Velma Arnold, as she demonstrated the surgical instrument sterilization techniques for a nursing student. I like the fact that Frank Bill included women in his exploration of jobs -- perhaps girls received some information that led to satisfying careers from these articles. Velma Arnold later founded the Health Services department at Illinois Wesleyan University and led that department for thirty years.
The Beich Candy factory employed 425 women and girls in 1935. Women there were able to find agency for themselves as union members and organizers. In later years, they were proud of their success in building a strong relationship between the union and the factory owners. Frank Bill pointed out the skill that was necessary for the women to develop in making the candies, and indeed, the work at the candy factory was quite stratified. In the early years, only men were allowed to work in some processes, but eventually all jobs opened up to women.
In 1935 State Farm Insurance had one of its very first "computers." These were among the earliest punch card computers and helped to organize information for the insurance giant. The computer operators featured in the Pantagraph were Frank Shepherd, Freida Adams and Claude Ren. In 1934 Freida's husband was working as an usher at a local movie theater, while she had the more skilled job, but later, Kenneth Adams would be an investment accountant for State Farm and Funk Seeds. Freda worked in the data processing department for 33 years.
The residents of the twin cities could take pride in living in a city where there were so many important and "up to date" jobs that were available to everyone, with the proper education and skills.