My Family: Chapter 69

My maid of honor, Janet, had called me that morning and asked if I was still getting married. She said that she was across the street from Aunt Eloise, in a bar and if I didn’t hurry up, she would be too drunk to stand up with me.  That was also where Joe's best man, Rob and his new girlfriend were waiting.  As soon as I got to Aunt Eloise house, Janet and her boyfriend came in and said it was about time and what happen to Joe because he wasn't there either.  Rob walked in behind them and I explained why Joe and I were late. I was late because I knew it was going to some time to get the license so I took my time getting ready.  The minister had started to get worried since neither the bride or the groom were there but Eloise kept him calm. 

Rob pulled me aside and told me not to say anything to his new girlfriend about his being previously married to Eileen, he didn’t want her to know because she was a Catholic and he was divorced. He later got shipped out to Germany.  While we were in the house getting married, Janet’s boyfriend was outside decorating Joe car with old shoes and whatever else he could find.

My dad had four daughters and he didn’t attend any of their weddings to see them say their wedding vows. I think he would have been real proud to walk us on his arm down the aisle.  I was right not to believe him about disowning me, but I don’t think that he ever did like Joe.  

I got pregnant after we had been married for two months but it took five months for Joe to tell his mother he had married me. The first thing she had ask him was if we had to get married. He told her no but I just had a miscarriage [I was ten weeks pregnant] a couple days before.  I think that's why he called her and told her he was married, she was upset with him because he had waited so long. It didn’t matter to me if he never told her we were married. I would be just as happy to live in Columbus, Ohio for the rest of our life.

Written for my children

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Thank you for reading my life story.  If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them.  If you know stories from the hollow which might include my family or friends, I would be happy to include them here.   AJ Dillo

 

 

My Family: Chapter 68

The next day, we went for a coffee at the Bev and when the three of us walked in everybody just stared at us. After we were sat down in a booth, Joe got up to go to the men's room. The place was full with soldiers from the base. Some of them asked me what I was doing going out with Joe, and I think each one took a turn to ask me to leave with him while Joe was in the bathroom. Ed told me not to walk out with any of them, I just laughed. When Joe came out of the bathroom, Ed told him that he almost lost his date, but Joe didn’t make any comment. 

Joe has a sister who had met and married a man from Lorain, Ohio about a hundred miles from Columbus. She had moved to Lorain to live with her husband so they could be close to his family. They just had a baby boy and the her family had been invited to come in February for the baby’s Christening.  Joe talked Mick, Vickie, and me into going with him to the Christening and meet his family. When we got there, I felt very uncomfortable (like everybody was staring at me) and wished I had stayed home.  

Joe's mother was there, she sat down beside me and asked me a lot of questions like where I was from, how long have I known Joe. By this time, I had seen and talk to Joe almost every day for a year. I knew more about her son than she did. I explained her I knew him from coming in the place where I worked. That's when she told me not to think Joe was going to marry me. I told her not to   worry we weren't even serious about each other and had no plans to get married. I wasn’t even sure that I like him yet as a person.

Alma & Joe's wedding day

Joe and I officially dated from January 1^st to May 6^th,  when we got married.  Dad told me that if I married Joe, he would disown me, and wouldn’t come to the wedding. I didn’t believe him about disowning me, but I knew he wouldn’t come and see me get married. Mom, Shirley, Bonnie, and Ronnie were all there but I don’t know where Lucille was? I talked to Aunt Eloise, she is the one who arranged for the minister to come to her house and marry us.  I was one hour late but Joe was a half hour later than I was.  He had to pick up the license, and they weren’t ready so he had to wait for it. We had just applied for the license three days before. We got married five days after I said yes. 

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.