August 1951 - A Summer to Remember
At a Knights of Pythias social one Sunday afternoon, a young Marine sat down at a table with a buddy and a pretty girl named Joan — and by the time the train carried him back to base, he already knew she'd change everything.
August 1951. On Sunday afternoon there were a number of organizations that would sponsor parties for the servicemen. The parties were run like the USO organizations during WWII. There was food and soft drinks, music and dancing. They had rules about conduct and also would not allow anyone to come just to pick up girls. The rules were that this was a social, not a dating program. I often went to the American Legion Hall because it was easy to reach from Terry's and also close to the train station. One weekend someone said that there was a nice party that was run by the Knights of Phythius. (I don't know anything about the group, but I know that they changed my life). So on Sunday that was my destination. As I entered and looked around, I saw a Marine buddy from my class sitting at a table with a very pretty young lady. He saw me and invited me to sit down with them. After a while he decided to leave, but I stayed for the rest of the day. I found that the young lady's name was Joan (pronounced Jo Ann). When the party was over and it was time to say goodbye, I asked Joan for her phone number. As I traveled back to the base on the train, I knew that this was the girl that I was going to marry. Six weeks later we were engaged. The unusual thing about this meeting was that it was the first time that either one of us had ever been to this particular party. In both cases a friend had made the suggestion to attend.
On Monday night I made a call to see if Joan would be willing to go to the Wisconsin State Fair with me on Saturday. She said yes. We went to the fair and spent most of the day there. On the way back to her boarding house she got up the courage to ask me if my name was Tom. When I told her that my name was Bob, she apologized and said that because of my New Jersey accent she really thought that it was Tom. I was informed, by her, that in the Midwest they had no accents. Their language was so pure that they sent radio announcers from all around the country to learn how to speak correctly.
Joan was living in a large girl's boarding house called "The Bay" close to the downtown area and the lake. She worked for the Chevrolet branch office as a secretary. She shared a room with Ginnie Kline, who was a high school classmate and a friend from Janesville. Joan was from the town of Janesville, Wisconsin.
After the first date I wanted to be there with Joan as much as possible; however, I did have a committed date to attend a wedding with a cousin of Bill Heiser's. Because of this date I had told Joan that I was not going to be in Milwaukee that weekend. I found that it does not pay to lie. As I was going downtown on the trolley, Joan and her friend Ginny got on the same trolley. She said hello in passing and I was concerned. However, in spite of this, things got better and the next weekend after going to a movie we went back to the "Bay" and sat on the front steps of the porch all night and talked. From then on I spent all time that I could with Joan.
On Sunday August 25, as I was leaving to go back to the base, Joan gave me her weekly bus pass to get to the train station. I have carried that pass in my wallet for many years.
At the beginning of September, Joan's father was playing golf and began having chest pains. He was taken home and then to the hospital. There he was diagnosed as having a heart attack. This meant that Joan wanted to be in Janesville whenever she could. I did not want to be away from her for the weekend. This was my chance to also go to Janesville and to meet the family. So my thumb and I got on the road and I arrived and found that there was no one home. Because I had not told her that I was coming, I also had no idea when anyone would be there. There was a screened in porch with some furniture, so I went up on the porch and made myself comfortable and waited. As you can imagine, they were surprised but they welcomed me in, so I was pleased.
From then on, I went to Milwaukee to meet Joan and we took the bus to Janesville each weekend until I bought a car. It was on the bus ride that I proposed and she accepted. Being in Janesville gave me a chance to also meet all of her relatives. This was very different for a person who had been raised with 2 sisters and no other relatives that I was aware of. It seemed at that time that Joan was related to half the people in town. They were all great and I felt at ease all the time.
Because of the layout of the kitchen in their house on Fremont Street, I was converted to drinking my coffee black. There was a dinette in the kitchen and I was always put into the seat by the window. At that time, I was a person who always drank coffee with a large amount of cream and sugar. I quickly found that Norwegians always drink their coffee black. With all of them being almost "true" Norwegians, there was no cream or sugar on the table and no one would move to let me get up. After a few attempts I was converted, and from that time on I have not been able to enjoy coffee or tea unless it is black.
It was important that Joan was with her family during the coming weeks, and so we took the bus home every weekend. After knowing each other for about 6 weeks (it was really about 10 days being together, because we only saw each other on the weekends and the second weekend we didn't date), on the trip back to Milwaukee I proposed and Joan accepted.
