The New York Central took me into the great city of Chicago. Then I changed trains and rail lines to the Chicago North Western. I just had coach seats so sleeping was done by laying down on the full bench seat if no other passenger sat there. I met a young man who was on his way home from the WW2. He had acquired enough points so that his time of service was up. He was from Omaha and turned out to be my angel in disguise. We spent a good deal of time that night talking about our families and his time in the service. Nearing Omaha He ask me where was going and I had the address of the boarding house I was to call home for almost 6 mos. He told me to stick with him as his father was coming to pick him up and they would take me to the boarding house. They did just that. I had the phone number of the boarding house. They ask me for it and I gladly gave them the number. Coming from a small town where no one locked their doors I was a very trusting soul.
There were 4 other girls plus a girl from my class in school living there. Joan Sharp arrived a couple days later from Amherst. We had kitchen priviledges and I remember I ate a lot of Mrs. Grases nooddle soup. Joan and I got registered in school. It was a school that was based on Office skills. We learned radio phone techneques and teletype, skills the fore-runner of the system we call computers today. We had to ride the city bus to class. A long bus ride across the city. It was necessary to transfere to another bus and in the winter time I remember that it was darn cold when the bus was late.Things at school went very smoothly. At this time I realized that I needed to find a job. A short distance from the boarding house was a large hospital. I went and applied for a job as a nurses aide. Almost all the nurses were Nuns. They were very tough to work for. My least favorite job was cleaning out the bed pans. The nurse that was my immediate supervisor smelled each bedpan to be sure they were clean. One evening I went to work and when I got to my station there sat 9 bed pans that I had cleaned the night before. She said, "THEY SMELLED" SO I DID THEM OVER AGAIN, plus a whole bunch more before I could go home. When I was finished with the job I looked for that nun. She had gone to her quarters. I just never went back to that job again. To this day I am not sure if I went back for my pay or not. But I know that those were the cleanest bed pans that ever were in any hospital.
The young man that I had met on the train called me later. He took me out to a movie and dinner. Boy, no chicken noodle soup that night. He then introduced me to another young man. Lou Burri. He ask me out and I did go with him. He called me a week later to say that he had arranged for me to have a blind date with a friend of his. I accepted. The story behind this is:
Lou's friend had been dating a girl that Lou wanted to take out, so he arranged for the blind date.
My blind date was my husband Robert E. Stilling. We have been married 63 years. Lou and
Bob never changed dates. Lou and his wife Margret called "Mickey" married also. They had 50 plus years together before Lou passed away after suffering a series of strokes. I am a hyper person but I could never hold a candle to Lou. He was a salesman, selling all sorts of things over the years. We always said that he could sell false eyebrows to John L. Lewis. Think of Andy
Rooney. Mr. Lewis had eyebrows twice as full as Andy's. Those were sweet months. We went dancing in a lovely large ballroom. Sorta like one near my hometown. All the big bands were still popular and came to play. Bob and I also danced to Lawerance Welk at the Chairmont ball room in Omaha. Many times he took me to the Union Pacific RR station for a bite to eat after a show or dancing. The coffee shop in the depot served shrimp coctail. I had never eaten shrimp and it soon became one of my favorite things to order. The shrimp coctail was made on a bed of ice with 6-7 large shrimp sitting there. On the side the most wonderful sauce to dip them in. For a young small town girl this was really living. They only cost $1.00 for each order. Expensive in those days for a young man going to college and working part time in a hobby shop selling model airplanes and other models.
Perhaps a month after Bob and I began to date he invited me to his home for Sunday Dinner. His Mother was a really wonderful cook and baker. His father who was an executive at the Union Pacific RR. was very much the head of his family. We sat down to the dinner table. A large roast sat on a platter in front of Mr. Stilling as well as the rest of the dishes of food to be served except the salad which was at each place. We all sat down and Mr. Stilling served us. Mrs. Stilling was first and then my tern. I had never been served except in a resturant, and he ask me what I would like, I believe that I mumbled, " whatever you put on my plate". Soon I began to feel more at home thanks to Bob's younger sister, Mary Ellen. The story goes that when Bob and I left so he could take me back to the boarding house, Mr. Stilling looked at his wife and said, "you just met your daughter-in-law". Now it was time to meet the rest of the family. Grandpa and Grandma plus Uncle Ernie and Aunt Ellen. Neither Ernie or Ellen had ever married so they all lived together in a large white house on Cumings Street. As we were approaching the house Bob was giving me all the do's and don'ts for this visit. At that very moment I wondered if I was really going to enjoy this visit. After we had been there 15 minutes I knew who was my alli in that household. Grandpa. He was full of the devil. His eyes told you so. Over the years I watched him do little things and say things that just drove his prissy daughter right up a tree. After the first visit I knew I was accepted. Uncle Ernie never said much but he agreed with grandpa a lot as the sly smile told just what he was thinking.
No comments:
Post a Comment