Gratifying Work : Rita Brendon, 71, Calabasas Hills

I’m no fuddy-duddy. But when I entered Moorpark College in 1967, I was not your typical college freshman. I was 42, married, a mother, grandmother and co-owner of Brendon Shoes in Camarillo.

At that time, some of the students had love beads and long hair. That didn’t bother me, but when an English teacher allowed a student to use foul language in the class one day, I just picked up my books and marched out.

Such language had great shock value on the 18-year-olds, but it didn’t sit well with a woman such as me who hadn’t forgotten her Bible Belt roots.

But on the whole, I did love school. I got to reread “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “The Red Badge of Courage” and “The Scarlet Letter”--all the books I loathed in high school but loved in college. In 1969, I entered Cal State Northridge, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in English and my teaching credential.

At the time of my retirement last June, I had been teaching 11th-grade English at Westlake High School since it opened 18 years ago. Altogether I spent 25 years as a teacher. I loved teaching high school. I always considered it to be a prestigious and honorable profession. An anonymous writer has said: “To teach is to touch a life forever.” What could be more gratifying?