Page 348 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

while able to see her through high school, could not afford to send Jeannette
to college.

When Jeannette was still in grade school she was saving the money she made
running errands and doing small household tasks. However, her specialty was
cooking and she decided to become a past master of this art. By the time she
entered high school she was able to prepare excellent meals. She found a
field for her talent in preparing dinners for the “cliff dwellers” in her
neighborhood who liked to play bridge or golf in the afternoons. The night
before her engagement, she would call her “client” on the telephone and get a
list of the things needed for dinner the next night. On her way home from
school at three-thirty, she would do the marketing.

When she arrived at her employer’s home and got the key from the janitor,
she would wash up the luncheon or breakfast dishes, prepare the vegetables
and the dessert, and set the table. While the dinner was cooking she would
straighten up the dining and living rooms, picking up the scattered
newspapers and books, emptying the ash trays, plumping up the cushions,
setting the window shades straight, and giving the rooms the attention that
every good housekeeper knows makes a place look right. If a roast had been
selected for the evening meal it would be in the oven, but if steak or chops,
she would have them ready to pop into the broiler as soon as she heard her
employer’s key in the door. In twenty minutes or so, she would be ready to
serve the dinner. Then after dinner, she washed the dishes and tidied up the
kitchen. Her charge for this service was $1.25. When she didn’t have to do
the marketing, the charge was $1.00.

She started out with one “customer” a week. Then she added two more to her
list. In the meantime, she helped prepare food and serve it at several big
parties. During the school year she averaged about four engagements a week.
In the second summer vacation from school she spent one month taking
complete charge of an invalid who needed to have her food carefully
prepared. The family in this case paid the girl $15 a week. Whereas the first
year in high school she had made only $150, the second year she made $200.
These sums added to the $150 she had in her college fund made a total of
$500 when she entered her third year in high school. In the next two years