Tag #126258 - Interview #101355 (Cornelia Gatlan)

In 1948 or so, my father took down the sign on his practice. It read ‘Dr. Noe Gatlan, specialized in skin and venereal diseases.’ Had he not done that, my sister would have never been admitted to college, because she would have been considered petit bourgeois, which would have dramatically diminished her chances. So my father took the sign down. My sister had just graduated from high school, having completed the eleven years of education of the old-style theoretical education system. That was right at the time when there was no room for the petit bourgeoisie.

The new regime didn’t confiscate my father’s practice, but he was forced to close it.