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Life Recollections

Chapter 4, Part 1
Romance & Marriage

Well, we danced and skated whenever we had time off. One day Ann called me and told me to meet her down town that night. She said she had had a fight with the cook and was going to quit her job. I met her and we took, a walk down 3rd Avenue and she was telling me all about it when she said quite loudly, "I told her I was just as good as she was and I wasn't going to take that from her." We had not noticed that there were a couple of Marines behind us until one of them said, "Good for you, that's the way to talk." Then we each had a Marine beside us, though the big, good-looking one was on her side. A little homely fellow was on my side. That is the way I met your father, kids. He was the big, good looking one. After much laughing and talking they took us to a show. Your father took Ann home and the little fellow took me home. He was a nice little guy. His parents had a fruit ranch in Eastern Washington. I said good night to him, never expecting to see him again. In a couple of weeks Ann calls me and tells me she had a letter from this Marine and they wanted to meet us on the weekend. Bold as she was she had given him her address. We had many pleasant weekends with them. They would stay in a hotel down town and on Sundays our favorite fun was to take a ferry ride. They had a ferry running to Tacoma, which we took many times and ferried to different islands. Of course we didn't want to give up our dancing so we still continued to have dates and as far as I was concerned, I forgot about my little friend.

One evening Ann was visiting me at Lyford's when she was called to the phone. It was her Marine wanting her to come down to the depot and tell him goodbye as he was being shipped overseas. She gave all kinds of excuses and didn't want to go so I grabbed the phone and said, "If she won't come, I'll come." Of course, she wouldn't do that so we both went. There were trainloads of Marines. We asked the boys at each car if he was there. After going a long ways down the track the Marines finally boosted him out the window. There wasn't much time left so he kissed her goodbye and then he kissed me. The train took off and feeling somewhat sorry for all those boys, we went home. Ann received several letters from your father but she was having too good a time and never bothered to write. I was taking the war more seriously so I told her, if you don't write to that guy, I'm going to write to him, so we both wrote him a letter. He told me later that the letter finally caught up with him when he was boarding the ship to come home.

After a while Ann wanted me to quit at Lyford's and try getting some other kind of work. We worked at the telephone company for a month but decided we didn't like that. Then we got a job as an usher at the Coliseum Theater. We got a room in the hotel where her brother was staying. We were each getting $10.50 a week and we were paying $10.50 a week for the room. That took half of our money and only left half to eat on and other incidentals. We went hungry many times but liked the work and always got to see the shows and sometimes a celebrity would be on the stage. It was here Ann got mixed up with a sailor and us being on different working shifts, she told me she had married him. He was a nice guy but it wasn't long until she got tired of him.

We were still working at the theater when the Armistice was signed November 11, 1918. It was flashed on the screen and everyone went wild. Most everyone left the show. We were on the last shift and when we came out the whole city had gone wild. It was a night never to be forgotten. The next day was our day off. We decided to go out to Woodland Park and as we were walking, the Lyford's drove by. Mrs. Lyford asked us both to come back there to work for her, which we later did. Ann's sailor husband had been discharged and gone back to his home in Kansas. He kept writing to her, wanting her to come to Kansas, which she decided to do. She hated Kansas and finally decided to leave him. I stayed at the Lyford's, and by this time the little ones were no longer babies and were soon to be in school. Mrs. Lyford paid me $50.00 a month, a lovely room and I was my own boss. She took care of the children. She called herself my second mother and truly she was more than that. I have nothing but pleasant memories of her and her family.
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