I had taken early retirement, and the question was "What now?" All my working years had been spent in biochemical laboratories, and I was finished with them. I needed to go on with other interests: literature, the love of a lifetime, and Judaism, a new discovery.

I knew almost nothing about Judaism and I planned to spend a year on that subject. In addition, a new section at the College of Marin opened, emphasizing education for adults, especially seniors.

I enjoyed the literary courses until the teacher retired. A friend suggested that I teach. To my astonishment, I applied and was accepted. I began teaching the plays I'd seen on Broadway on Wednesday afternoons during my college years. For 50 cents I could afford a second-balcony seat to see the great works of American theater. They were the subjects of my first classes: "The Glass Menagerie," the plays of Clifford Odets, Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller and others.

That career lasted for 11 years, a career I enjoyed enormously until I went on to other things.

After that, I wrote two books. One is on my working days while going to college, as a dress saleslady on Saturdays and as a waitress in the Borscht Circuit during summer vacations. The other is about my days as an idealistic member of the Communist Party and my disillusionment with the party before the Second World War. All of this kept me busy, living an interesting life. I urge others to do the same.