My mother had to fight to be able to take Geometry in High School. She was told, girls don't take Geometry. She convinced them otherwise, I don't know that if she took another math class after that. (Perhaps Plane Geometry was the highest math class at Yuma High at that time. My Father also went to the same high school and also stopped taking math at Plane Geometry. But on the other hand, the algebra course was called Algebra I. Often you need Trig for Physics, Father took Physics but not Trig.) She was the bookkeeper of the home budget and eventually one of the bookeepers for LA city schools. In my day, geometry was taught during 10th grade. My geometry teacher was Ms Cooper, who did a great job of introducing me to proofs. I believe mother went to Yuma High, in Yuma Az, in tenth grade. Yuma high's team name was the criminals.
As a young mother of four in the 1950's, Esther stayed at home. She enjoyed sewing. For example clown costumes for Steven and Marie. She would sew shirts for all six family members out of the same distinctive fabric. (Useful for trips to busy places like Disneyland. Have you seen a kid dressed like ... ?) Laying out all the patterns for all the shirts was a geometry problem. She also used spatial skills assemblying electronic kits -- soldering components for tube amplifers and stereos.
Mother's last job was as a bookkeeper or accountant for the main office for LA City schools. She loved the hours, she earned lots of comp time during end of the month closures and especially at the end of the fiscal year. She used all the extra hours visiting grandchildren. When she retired, they replaced her with 3 people. The City of Los Angles passed a tribute to her family in her memory.
Mom was a Telephone operator, both a Supervisor and instructor for the telephone company in Los Angeles at the time of my parents wedding. (Announcement likely in the Yuma newspaper.)
Mom told this story about herself as girl. She had $1.00 to buy presents for 10 people. The local five and dime has pencils for 1 cent each. Problem solved? No, there was sales tax. Tax was smaller back then, but still there would be several cents tax on a dollar. She knew there was no tax charged on a 10 cent item. She started buying the pencils, ten a time. End of the story? No, the rat bastard clerk, charged her a penny tax anyway. So one of her gifts was only 9 pencils.
For many years, Father got paid twice a month, perhaps the 1st and 15th rather than weekly or biweekly. This meant mom had to balance uneven paychecks with uneven spacing. I was a saver and alway had 5-15 dollars, even in grammer school. Mother would sometimes borrow, with my approval, some of it. She would repay me 1 cent for each dollar, when the next paycheck came in. One day, she stopped to think. She was paying one percent interest for a few days loan. She had made me a loan shark charging over 100% interest per year. The interest stopped, and the borrowing slowed.
Mom read Anne of Green Gables and added an e to the end of her middle name which was Ann. One of my sisters has the middle name of Anne with an e.
She was Esther Williams, during the time Esther Williams was a big star in Hollywood. In fact, my Father got ribbed that his girl got married when the actor married. I don't think my mother "knew" how to swim.
After she signed the last check for Harvey Mudd College's tuition for Steven, she had a case of wine sent to him, me. I had no college debts on graduation. My family came to my Harvey Mudd graduation, afterwards there was a reception with brownies and lemonade. We decamped to a place with alcohol, maybe a Love's? with my friend Itelson and his family.