My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

mentioned that I should seek a position that was more appropriate,
given my qualifications. I insisted that I needed a job right away
because I had a wife and two children, but no luck was to be had.
I kept looking in newspaper ads and I saw one asking for an
Insurance Underwriter in Hartford, Connecticut. It was for a
position at the Hartford Insurance Co. As I did not have any
insurance experience, they gave me a position as Assistant
Underwriter Trainee. It was 25 miles from Middletown, and I
worked in a nice office with very good people. But my salary was
only $100.00 dollars per week. I purchased a secondhand car; a
Rambler that looked like a bath tub, for $300.00 dollars and it was
a real lemon. The windshield wipers rarely worked, but I had no
choice about using the car since I had to drive to work every day.
At that time I smoked, and I remembered how my father (who was
very knowledgeable with automobiles) once told me, "If it rains
when you are driving and the windshield wipers don't work, you
must improvise. Just use the tobacco from a cigarette and splash it
all over the windshield. You'll see what happens!" I tried his
suggestion and it actually worked! The tobacco repelled the rain
on the windshield and enabled me to continue driving the car on
rainy days.
Deodete, who only spoke a little bit of English that she had learned
in high school, did not speak or understand enough to get a decent
position as a teacher. Although she was a Certified Teacher in
Portugal, she would have to go to college again to earn an
American teaching degree. I encouraged her to do so, and we both
went to a local college to get information about what equivalency
her degree in Portugal would garner in credits in the United States
if she decided to pursue that option. After she presented her
credentials, diplomas and courses that she had taken in Portugal,
they told her that they would give her 59 credits and that she only
needed an additional 61 to earn her Teaching Certificate. Since we
were starting our life anew in a new country with an eight month
old son and a 4 year old daughter, she decided not to go to school
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