AS I WAS SAYING..............................

I really wasn't thinking of this as a cliff hanger, after all you all have read the last page!
Yes, I dated Chuck for three years. In December he asked me to "go steady" and I said
yes. So on that date everymonth, he would bring me a box of Candy and every Saturday
he would bring me flowers from the Green Market. I was impressed. Chuck was a
really nice guy. He was a year younger than I, and still in school. I was working my
first full time adult job. I worked for Loewi & Co. an investment firm. I had the nicest
boss, Marshall Loewi, his father was the president of the company, but Marshall was
just a couple of years older than me. I worked there until the time I got married. But,
I got off the track there.

We had lots of good times those three years. Chuck was Catholic (ohmygosh) but
soon became involved with my church, and eventually joined Immanuel. Bob and Vi
were the only other "couple" in our group, but the others managed to find dates and
so we had a lot of parties. We never did any drinking until we were of legal age, but
soon discovered that if we left the city limits, we could legally drink beer at the age of 18.
So we would go out to the "Lincs Motel" where they had great hamburgers and we had
beer. Imagine the look on my Mom's face when I said we went to a motel! Wehad
lots of parties, everytime someone had a birthday, we would have a party in Wayne's
attic, or mine. We were the only ones who had a full attic. We also spent a lot of time
at Vi's home. She had 4 younger sisters, and we wound up babysitting those girls a lot.

But as I said, Chuck was a year younger than I and I guess I just grew up faster andwe
kind of grew apart. We had 2 weddings coming up in 1951, Audrey and Art's in August
and Bob and Vi's in September. We were in both weddings, and we did not want to put
a damper on either one, so we told no one and just pretended everything was fine.
After the September wedding, we just each went our own way.

In the meantime, things were happening elsewhere in the world. That's about the time
when the Korean war broke out and our government decided we needed to send our boys
over there for a "police action" They re-instated the draft and all our friend were just
waiting to be called to serve their country. Chuck was exempt because he was the only
son and they had a business. His father had recently had a heart attack, so Chuck was
running the business. They had a print shop on 12th street and did a lot of printing for
the city. As a matter of fact, Chuck's dad got a ticket for speeding and he told the officer
"thanks a lot, I printed that ticket" For the record, Chuck printed up our wedding
invitations.

One night I was babysitting my brother and feeling sorry for myself, so I called Wayne.
I didn't know at the time he was just leaving his house, so he sat in his hallway and we
talked for a long time. He would ask me what time it was and I told him 10 after 9.
I didn't realize my watch had stopped (we had wind up watches then) and when we
finally hung up it was 11:30. From that time one whenever we wrote to one another
we always wrote 9:10 PM. Even on notes left on the table, any card we gave each
other, and before he died I had flowers sent to the hospital with no name but 9:10 pm
on the card. Even in his drugged state he knew what that meant.

We started dating right after that phone call. We had lots of parties that fall as so
many of our friends were drafted. We would have a going=away party. Grandpa
left for the army on Dec. 7th 1951. 10 years to the date of Pearl Harbor. Bob Linder
was drafted into the Marines a couple of weeks later. Grandpa was sent to Ft. Sheridan
in Illinois, for the first few days.

I was in church that Sunday with my Dad. Mom and Bobby had stayed home and I
really don't remember where my sister was (probably in church sitting with her friends)
It was during the sermon when one of the ushers came to see me and told me I had a
emergency phone call in the office. I went to answer it (leaving my purse with my dad)
It was Auntie Bev saying they were going to Ft Sheridan to see Wayne and did I want
to go with them.

Oh my gosh, I wanted to go, but I was in a play that night (we were doing three one
act plays at our church.) We had won the State Championship (walther League style)
and were presenting the winners to our district. Bob said dont worry, we will do ours
last, go and have a good time. I did. It was then Grandpa and I confessed our love for
each other, and even tho we did not know what the future held, we wanted to be together.

I got home really late and knew I would have to rush to get ready for the play. When
I got home, I found this Sailor waiting for me in my living room. I had dated him a
time or two. He was from Ohio and his dad and mine were in the same union, so when
he was stationed at Great Lakes he contacted us and I showed him around our town.
He had been at my house all day. He knew where I had been and knew Grandpa and I
were getting serious, but being a good sport, he went to the plays with me and then
somehow I never heard from him again.

This was probably around the 10th of Dec. Grandpa and I wrote to each other and
Grandpa got a leave for Christmas. He had 10 days leave and would leave on New
Year's Eve for Fort Lee Virginia for Basic training. He came home around the 21st of
December. On one of those evenings, walking home from his house he asked me to
marry him. I said yes, but I really had some reservations about this. I was so very
into my church and he wasn't even baptized. His dad was an atheist and his mom
a methodist who didn't have any of the kids baptized or took them to church, saying
they could do this when they grew up and knew what they wanted.

We discussed this quite a bit. I didn't want him to commit to the church simply because
I wanted it, but he had to want this himself. He would do nothing to stop me from going
to church and he said he wanted to go with me and learn. He gave my my engagement
ring on my birthday.

Until next time to be continued.................love you all