Sir, Im Not That Kind of Girl! by Mary Lynn Archibald

A small town California girl longs for the bright lights and the lure of the Big City (San Francisco must be the place to go for a young, clueless but talented lass, she thinks). World War II takes the family to Dayton, Ohio. Not even close. But shes a trouper: singing in a fourth-grade production of The Magic Nutcracker operetta or performing dance numbers in high school assemblies and plays when she returns to California postwar. When she is fifteen a baby brother is born, and she finds she is no longer the star in the family. This is unacceptable. At seventeen, she is recruited into a San Francisco chorus line, so as soon after graduation as possible, she flees to the city and her big adventure. She works for a while for Gumps (Asian and other exotic gifts, art and jade), and lands such glamorous jobs as a switchboard operator, clothes model and hostess at a kosher deli, all while trying to get a college education at San Francisco State. She enters the Miss San Francisco Contest, and gets close, but...you know the rest. The only real glory she enjoys is dancing on the same stage with the Ames Brothers, who perform their hit song, Tammy every night. Its a riotous romp through an Ozzie and Harriet childhood and a foray into the big world without the proper survival tools. In due course, she finds her most useful new skill is how to fend off overzealous men. Who knew?