I worked for and with Charles-Henry in Washington DC from January 1983 until October 1986. In 1985, Walt wanted to move to California to continue his studies. His father had died in 1982 and he had moved to Washington DC to find a job. He ended up working for a well-known California congressman, who asked him one day why he was working in a low-level office job. You're smart and you could do a lot better, the congressman said. But I don't have a college degree, Walt told him. "So go get one" was the congressman's answer to that. But I don't have money to pay tuition, Walt said. In California the tuition is very inexpensive, said the congressman. Yes, for residents, Walt said. I'm not a California resident. Yes you are, the congressman said. The fact that you work in D.C. for me makes you qualify as a Californian. And it did.
I had some friends in California, mostly people I had known in Illinois when I was a grad student at the U. of Illinois in Urbana, and some I had met in France. We went to California to see them. Two of them, my late friends Cheryl and John, said we could live with them for a while until we found our own place. Walt ended up applying to San Francisco City College and being accepted. In August of 1986 we drove across the continent to California in Walt's Subaru. I left him, his clothes, and other possessions at Cheryl and John's house. I flew back to California. I wanted to work at USIA for a few more months to get what we called "tenure" there. That way, I would have priority if I decided to move back to California and applied to go back to work there. I spent September packing up the rest of our possessions.
The plan was that Walt would start school in San Francisco. He would fly back to D.C. in October, we'd rent a truck spend a week hauling our few belongings and pieces of furniture out to California, pulling my own Subaru behind the truck. And that's what we did. After a month at our friends' house in San José, we found an affordable apartment in SF our near the City College campus and moved into our own place. By January, I had found a job with a magazine publishing company in downtown SF. It paid less than my job in D.C. had paid, but I felt free in California. The federal government in the Reagan years didn't like having people in same-sex relationships working in government jobs — especially people like me who had a security clearance. They were afraid we'd be blackmailed and give away government secrets.
I had some friends in California, mostly people I had known in Illinois when I was a grad student at the U. of Illinois in Urbana, and some I had met in France. We went to California to see them. Two of them, my late friends Cheryl and John, said we could live with them for a while until we found our own place. Walt ended up applying to San Francisco City College and being accepted. In August of 1986 we drove across the continent to California in Walt's Subaru. I left him, his clothes, and other possessions at Cheryl and John's house. I flew back to California. I wanted to work at USIA for a few more months to get what we called "tenure" there. That way, I would have priority if I decided to move back to California and applied to go back to work there. I spent September packing up the rest of our possessions.
The plan was that Walt would start school in San Francisco. He would fly back to D.C. in October, we'd rent a truck spend a week hauling our few belongings and pieces of furniture out to California, pulling my own Subaru behind the truck. And that's what we did. After a month at our friends' house in San José, we found an affordable apartment in SF our near the City College campus and moved into our own place. By January, I had found a job with a magazine publishing company in downtown SF. It paid less than my job in D.C. had paid, but I felt free in California. The federal government in the Reagan years didn't like having people in same-sex relationships working in government jobs — especially people like me who had a security clearance. They were afraid we'd be blackmailed and give away government secrets.
From left to right, Charles-Henry (b. 1924), me (b. 1949), and Henri (b. 1925), a new friend of mine who lived in Rouen. Henri's conjointe (partner), Jeanine (not the one at USIA in DC), took the picture. I had known her since 1972, when I was working in Rouen. In this photo, we were at Jumièges, the ruins of a medieval abbey, in August 1998.
Anyway, there we were in SF in the 1990s, where nobody was bothered by the fact that you were part of a same-sex couple. The following year we moved again, into an apartment building in downtown SF, near Japantown. That made my commute easier. And Walt had been accepted at Berkeley. His commute wasn't bad either, because he could take a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train back and forth from SF to Berkeley. I could almost walk to work, but I could also easily take a cable car to get to work and back. It was a nice situation to be in, and we lived there for four years. Walt got his bachelor's degree in architecture and two master's degrees in urban planning and transportation engineering from Cal Berkeley in that amount of time. More tomorrow...
I'm enjoying the story. Walt was fortunate to work for a good congressman. Glad you made it to San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteWow, despite all of the many stories I’ve heard and read (and lived!) with you and with Walt, I did not know about this story of how Walt came to be a California resident, and California university student. It’s so good that you two made the move to a place where you would also feel free to live your authentic life. Those of us who have not ever had those worries, can always be empathetic, but no one realizes what it’s like to live under scrutiny that forces constant secrecy, unless they are living that themselves. I think of that life for CHM, for all of those many decades before things started to change.
ReplyDeleteWalt went to school at a good time. The tuition now is not nearly as cheap as it was ranging from $14.000 to $20,000 for the state universities. Tuition for the UC system and Cal State system was free in the 1960s but when Reagan came in as governor, he did not like all the anti-Viet Nam protests and started large tuition jumps as a punishment, or so I've heard. Out of state tuition today is $40,000-$50,000.
ReplyDeleteBecause of my husband's veteran status, we were able to attend a California University as residents starting in 1969 for only $50 - $60/term with books approximately the same cost. Times have sure changed and we hear about the 5 and 6 digit debts so many young people have now. I had no idea the costs had risen to $40 -$50,000 now. Phew.
ReplyDeleteMary, tuition in private universities now is often over $60,000. Everything from the little mediocre schools to the Ivies. I only know this because I have three nieces in college right now. One went to University of Edinburgh because the cost of tuition was so much lower, even as an international student.
DeleteWhen I went to Duke U. in 1967, tuition + room and board was $1800 a year. Or was it per semester? Anyway, it was pocket change compared to today's costs.
ReplyDelete