Nowadays, it may be a word that is familiar to most people, but in the late 40s you never heard the word “vocation”.
One Monday morning, after walking about one‑and‑a‑half miles to school, unless some farmer passed you with his horses and wagon (no school buses in those days), the teacher asked all of us present to write an essay. After getting our pencil and paper out she said, “I want you to write an essay entitled your ‘Vocation in Life’.” Four or five of us, I, being one, put our hands up and she said, “What do you want?”, and we said, “We don’t know what that word means.” She explained that vocation means what are you going to do with your life when you are finished school. At that time it looked like some of us would always be in school so we didn’t have to worry about a vocation!