My Family: Chapter 67

Another waitress at the Bev, Vickie, had a husband, Mick, who worked at a pet store nearby.  Joe worked there part-time as well.  Vickie and Mick decided to have a New Year's Eve party and they invited everyone to go. They even asked me to come but I refused and told them I didn’t have a way there. I thought that would be the end of it but they explained they could get Joe to pick me up. I panicked and I told them my Dad wouldn't allow me go with him by myself.  They said Joe was going to picked up another girl first and then come get me. I couldn't see a way out of it, so I agreed as long as Joe picked up this other girl first. I really didn’t want to go to this party, so as I got ready I made up my mind that when Joe came to get me, I was going to back out and tell him I wasn’t going. 

Joe knocked on the door and before I could say anything he told me Darlene's boyfriend had come home on leave and she wasn’t coming with us.  He also explained that when he pulled up in front of the house he got stuck in the snow and wanted to know if we have a shovel to help dig himself out.

By the time he got out of the snow, I felt so sorry for all the trouble he had gone through I decided I should go to the party.  After we got on our way, he explained he had to stop by the Bev to pick up Ed, a cripple boy, who always hung out at the Bev and talked to the girls. Ed would often come out on the curb and talk to me for hours; I think he had a crush on me. He was the same age as me and lived about one street down from the Bev.  He walked there on his crutches. 

When we got to the Bev,  Rob and Eileen were there. They had with them a friend of Rob's, John,  who had been station with him in Detroit.  John had stopped for a visit on his way home to Cincinnati, Ohio for the holidays. Since we were late picking up Ed, they saw him standing out in front of the Bev and had stop to give him a ride.

After we had been at the party for awhile John came into the room where Ed and I were talking. He looked at me and said he was taking me home. I said no he wasn’t that I came with Joe and I was going home with him.  John got very upset.  He asked me why I wouldn’t let him take me home; he knew Joe wasn’t my boyfriend because he had already ask about me and I was there by myself. I just said I was going home with Joe.  Ed told him he had his answer and to leave me alone. I have to say that he was the cutest and sexiest man that I had ever seen but I didn’t trust him.  Later, Joe took me home while Ed sat up in the front seat with us. When they drop me off,  Joe asked me if I would like to go for coffee with him and Ed the next day and I said sure why not.

My Family: Chapter 66

This is the story of how I met my husband:

        

While I was still working at the Bev, I had a friend, Pat, who worked as an inside waitress.  After my shift would end I would go inside and wait for my bus to come. I sat in a booth and visited with Pat while she was on break. Pat was dating a guy named Joe, he was in the Army and stationed at the Army base about a mile up the street.  Sometimes Joe would come in while Pat and I were sitting together and he would walk over to where we were and just look at her then storm away.  I asked Pat what’s wrong with him and she would said he was mad because she sat there talking instead of greeting him.  I thought he was awful and I didn’t like him at all. 

There was another waitress, Jean, who worked at the Bev and she liked a customer by the name Bob. One day, Pat and Joe got engaged and she showed us all the ring Joe bought her. Shortly after, Pat decided that she didn’t love Joe anymore, she was now in love with Bob.  Pat would leave work early and Bob picked her up on the curb.  Jean found out what they were doing by accident, but the girls on the curb knew they had been meeting for a long time.  Pat and Jean began to have a war over Bob, however, Jean won this war because Pat’s father came in and told the Bev’s manger Pat was too young to be working there.  See she had just turned seventeen and you were suppose to be eighteen to work there.  Pat's dad also brought her three sons with him and in those days, having children out of wedlock was a no-no.  So that killed everyone’s love for Pat and she was immediately fired from her job. 

However, the soap opera continued. While Jean was in love with Bob, Joe's best friend, Rob, was stationed with him at the Depot  and he was head over heels in love with Jean.  He was always hanging around trying to get a date with her but she would never give him the time of day. So when Bob came on the scene, Robert gave up and went to Detroit for the weekend where he had been previously stationed. He knew a girl there named Eileen and he brought her back to Ohio as his wife. He must have thought Jeannie would be sorry she lost him. Much later,  I got to know Eileen and she told me she knew why Rob had married her but she didn’t care she loved him anyway. However, Rob's plan backfired as Jeannie told me Rob could marry as many women as he wanted, she loved only Bob.  Robert and Eileen got a divorce after a year and Eileen went back to Detroit.

It wasn't too long before Joe found out about Pat cheating on him and broke their engagement. Now when I went inside to wait on my bus I would sit in a booth and Joe would come talk to me. I didn’t like him any better and I was always glad to see it was time for me to leave.

My Family: Chapter 63

That police officer began to ride by me while I was waiting for the bus everyday. He came into the Bev regularly so we already knew each other. One morning, he stopped and talked to me until my bus came. After a few weeks of doing this, he asked me if I would like a ride to work. I figure I could trust him, he was a police officer, after all. He looked to be in his late 30’s maybe early 40’s and was divorced. 

After a while my police officer friend began to pick me up at the apartment. One day, he told me he would be back to take me home after I got off from work. I said ok, but that day I got off work early so I asked my boss to tell the police officer I went home and I would see him tomorrow.  Well, the next day he wasn’t at the apartment nor was he at the bus stop. He finally showed up at the Bev. I was in the kitchen where he barged in to yell at me for standing him up. I told him I thought we were just friends and hadn’t known it was a date. He told me he didn’t want to be any friend of mine and walked out. Right in front of everybody I worked with which included my boss. I refused to pay him any attention after that until Jane began to work for the Beverly and they started to date - they were closer in age. I never told her about that incident. She had asked if I knew him and I told her I did that he had been coming on the curb since I’ve worked there. I always thought he was a very nice person, however, he never spoke to me again. He still came on the curb but someone else would wait on him and get his coffee. 

Much later when I was getting married, I asked Jane to be my maid of honor and since she was still dating the police officer, I let him decorate our car for the wedding. His brother was also a police officer and he would often stop at the Bev and talk with me, he had a wife that also would stop by. Now, I realize they were looking me over, because his brother once said to me that he told the police officer I was too young for him.

My Family: Chapter 62

My parents found an apartment in a house where the stairway went between the bedroom and kitchen of the first floor apartment to get to the second floor apartment, and through the second apartment to get to the attic apartment and we lived on the second floor. The apartment was furnished already so we didn’t need any furniture. It was located off of Main Street on Monroe Street and I walked about four blocks over to Broad Street to catch the bus instead of going downtown and switching buses to go to work. The Beverly sat on the corner of Broad and Livingston. The streets were no picnic to walk.

One day on my way home, a young boy walked up beside me and walked with me. We just walked and talked; when I got to my parent’s apartment, I was about to say goodbye when he grabbed me between the legs! I hulled off and hit him across the face. He took off crying he was going to tell his big brother on me. I went into the house and told Mom about the incident and she tried to get me to change my walking route. I didn’t because it was the easiest and fastest way home. The next morning I had another scare, there was a man following me; he stayed abreast of me on the other side of the street but once we got closer to Broad Street he passed me and crossed over to my side of the street then disappeared between two buildings. I became nervous, so I also crossed the street and as I passed the spot where he had disappeared there he stood waiting for me. A policeman, who I had befriended at the Bev, was at the end of the street. I walked up to him to tell him about the man when I glanced back over my shoulder, the man stood in the street watching us, I never saw him again.

My Family: Chapter 60

David, me, Mom with a friend, and Dad

Dad and Mom met a new drinking couple, one weekend they decided to take both families on a picnic where Dad’s friend had a motor boat and were taking turns with it in the river but no one would ride with Dad so I said I would. Mom threw a fit and begged Dad not to take me out but he promised he wouldn't let anything happen to me. Well, he almost turned us over while Mom ran alone side the river blank; screaming for Dad to get out of the water.  After that he did bring the boat to shore because none of us could swim.  I went back to live at Aunt Hannah's to stay. 

I was 17 years old now. Dad and Mom had taken in a border and I didn't want to stay at home any more. One day, one of the waitress who worked for Aunt Hannah at the dance hall sent word there was a girl and her husband looking for me (it was my girlfriend from school). By the time I got to the dance hall they had gotten into a car and drove away. I went in and asked if my girlfriend had left me a message and the waitress said “no” because they had been there a long time. Which is why the waitress sent for me, they wanted to get them out of the dance hall. The waitress said they finally had to ask them to leave. See, my girlfriend had gotten jealous of another woman and hit her over the head with a beer bottle. I was sorry I missed them; I hadn’t seen my girlfriend in nearly two years. 

 Shirley, David, and me

I hadn’t been home for almost a year, so I didn’t know my parents had moved to Columbus, Ohio until Dad came for me a week before Christmas. He and Aunt Hannah got into an argument over me, she didn’t want me to leave and he was telling her he wasn’t leaving without me because I was old enough now to get a job and help him and Mom. Dad and Mom were now living with Aunt Eloise and her family. Mom and I got a job at the same place, Beverly Drive-In, she was a waitress inside and I was a car-hop outside. However, Mom quit after three days but I stayed there making twenty dollars a week for a year and half. Dad worked at the Ohio Wire Co which was where Aunt Eloise’s sons worked.

Alma Jean Dillow