Karen Moore
5/9/2011
From the first moment I laid my hands on that old Royal typewriter my dad bought at auction for $5, I knew I loved to type. In high school, instead of just reading books, I would type them; this helped me to remember the material better, and it helps develop my typing speed of 130 wpm.
During college, I was a secretary for Montgomery Ward. I was so excited when my boss told me I could go to the electronics department and pick out a top-of-the-line electric typewriter with a correction tape!
After college, I became a legal secretary for the Bakersfield City Attorney’s office. By then, word processors were mag-card typewriters – you could store one page on a card and upload it back into the memory to make changes. That was an exciting time in the world of transcription. After seven years working for the City Attorney, I realized that what I loved about the job was the typing. And it was exciting to see how word processing had evolved and where it was heading. So I ventured out on my own and started a word processing business. The next four years were both challenging and rewarding.
One of my clients was a prestigious personal injury law firm here in Bakersfield, and somehow they talked me into hiring on full time. So I spent the next seven years working for lawyers and decided that was enough. I still loved word processing, so I accepted a position with the State Farm Regional Office in their word processing department.
During the four years at State Farm, I met my husband who owned a formula car racing team and we traveled the racing circuit for a few years.
After spending many years working in offices, I was at a point where I wanted a physical job where I could get my hands dirty, and my husband was ready to retire from the racing business. So we started a small trucking company. I traded in my high-heel shoes for steel-toed boots and hit the road! My husband and I have been team driving for ten years now, pulling a flatbed across the country. We just received an award from the California Highway Patrol for having the safest small trucking company in California.
Recently I had been thinking about starting a transcription company again, but we didn't want to give up trucking. After finding GMR, I have the best of both worlds. When my husband’s driving, I just put on my headset, plug in my foot pedal, and I’m suddenly in the world of transcription, learning about so many different, interesting topics. So I’m keeping my steel-toed boots for now; besides, they’re more comfortable than high-heels any day!
My husband is now back into racing, except now he’s the driver and he loves it. He runs an altered roadster in the NHRA nostalgia series, going 190 mph in a quarter-mile in 7.5 seconds, and I’m his backup girl!
I’m also pursuing my dream of playing the piano and the clarinet. So between my keyboard, clarinet, knitting projects, workout gear (jump rope and kettle bell), and now my transcription equipment, my husband teases me about maybe needing an even bigger truck! But life’s good!
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