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During high school days I worked in a shoe repair shop in the basement in the alley by the Family Theater; it was operated by a man named Howard Randolph. It was quite unique in that a door off the basement room led to a series of catacomb type rooms and was the location of our rest room. There were numerous gambling machines stored there and were probably rented out for special occasions. I remember telling Howard I had found a redhead for a girl friend; that would be Jennie Barnes whom I met for the first time in Latin class at school....
I asked Jennie for her address, which was 1114 East Ganson St. where she lived with her folks, William and Nellie Barnes. However, on my first attempt to visit, I went to West Ganson instead and the attempt failed. In those days most high school kids had the choice of walking, skating, or riding the street cars. Jennie and I used roller skates most of our dates out until later when I went to work for Consumer's Power Co. Jennie became my "steady" and we made history together [nearly] 40 years.
Getting acquainted with Jennie brought into the picture two girls, Neva Porter and Wilma Clement, who lived around the corner from Jennie's folks on Loomis St. The threesome walked to high school together and all will impact my history the rest of my life. Neva later married R.D. Crippen and Wilma married Clark Smith. My neighbor friend Lester Bidwell dated Neva and the four of us had many outings for picnics, etc.
My sister, Margaret, had a job in the bookkeeping department at Consumer's and was able to get me a part time job printing electric bills on an Address-o-graph. The bills were then ready for the billing dept. to put in the figures and mail out to the customers. The work room was in the basement of the present Consumer's building before it was rebuilt the first time....
Later when I quit school and asked for a full time job they gave me a job repairing electrical appliances in the basement at the front of the building. Later they gave me charge of the small appliance stockroom also, and I had to keep the inventory records, all by hand of course. In my desk was a cash-box so we could make change when a customer had to pay for appliance repairs. When I worked evenings on repairing, they allowed 75 cents to buy my supper, no overtime pay. I often worked over for the 75 cents and went without supper so I'd have money enough to buy my date a dish of ice cream or whatever. This often happened on Sunday nights when I would skate to her house then together we would skate down to the corner of Michigan and Edgewood to a place called the "Sugar-Bowl" where we would usually order pineapple sundaes. We would then skate back to her house, after which I would skate the two miles back to my home. I'd wear out a complete set of wheels in two weeks on the cement walks and pavements....
In July of the summer of 1927, Consumer's completed rebuilding the Michigan Ave. home, and I helped move back from the Cortland St. temporary offices. In the basement they had a room set aside with a "dumb waiter" going upstairs onto the sales floor, so they could send appliances down to the basement for repair and return them upstairs when they were fixed. I built an appliance test board, in this repair room, used in locating what if anything was wrong with an appliance. We just plugged it in and it would show if there was trouble... In September of that year I had a disagreement with my supervisor and quit the job. (Probably one step from being fired—independence!)
With my separation pay in my pocket I talked to Jennie and we decided to go to Toledo where her relatives, the Hoods, lived and get married. I wasn't quite 18 yet so her Aunt [see next paragraph] had to sign for me and we got the license the afternoon we arrived. However, on the way to Toledo, in the town of Blissfield, Michigan, a connecting rod burned out in our motor so we pulled up into a church yard and I replaced the rod and we were back on the road toward Toledo in about 3 hours. We were still driving my first auto, a Model T Ford. We were married in a Methodist parsonage about 7:00 p.m. That night the local neighbors decided to serenade us as we sat in the porch swing on the second floor of...her cousin's apartment in Toledo.
[This "Aunt" was most likely Jennie's distant cousin-by-marriage Mabel Hood of Toledo. Mabel would have been about Jennie's father's age. Frank and Mabel's son Harris was living in an apartment with wife Vera.]
It was a beautiful fall day when Howdy and I started out for Toledo, Ohio, September 27, 1927. I told Mom and Dad I was going to my cousin Amy Hood's and Howdy was taking me. When we got to Toledo we went to the Probate Court and got a marriage license. Then we went to Rev. R.B. Wilson, a Methodist Minister, and asked if he'd marry us that night. He said yes and told us the time. We then went to my cousin Amy's house (her Mom and Dad, Frank and Mabel Hood, were my Dad's cousins).
For dinner that night Mabel had their son Harris and his wife Vera over. Howdy had to leave to pick up George Beal, Amy's boyfriend, because they were going to stand up with us. He got lost, so they were late getting there. He had a $10 bill but didn't have time to get it changed, so had to give it to the minister. It was all the money he had. The minister's wife was also present during the ceremony in the parsonage.
Frank and Mabel didn't want to have anything to do with the wedding for fear Dad would be mad at them. We stayed overnight at Harris and Vera's. They had a real nice apartment, and we had lots of fun with them. The next day Howdy had to work on the car, so we stayed at Harris and Vera's again.
Jennie's story sure did recall some precious memories. One correction: when we were married we had thirteen dollars, and after giving the minister ten we had three to get home on.
Just remembered more about Toledo and the wedding. I was always fascinated and attracted by railroads. Even as a little guy I loved to play train, and when my kids were little I always tried to have trains on-hand. Bud's electric train was stolen from our garage in Flint while he had scarlet fever. Back to Toledo: Harris Hood, at whose house we stayed, worked in the railroad yards at Toledo—the Hocking Valley yard—and the day after the wedding I was to go there with him to get a job, and we could stay on and live in Toledo—Jennie and I both loved the town—I think the river was our attraction. On the morning we were to go see the RR people a connecting rod burned out in the Ford roadster and I had to use part of the $3 I had left to replace the rod and buy gas to get home. That little incident probably changed our whole life—what a thought! We were really sold on staying in Toledo. Guess it was not meant to be.
September 29th was another beautiful fall morning, and we started out for home. On the way we stopped and bought some cider and went to my sister Helen's in Horton. We stayed there overnight but didn't tell them we were married.
I stayed home and worked at McLellans. Howdy had lost his job at Consumer's Power Company before we got married—he was living at his home. He went to Standard Oil looking for a job. They asked if he was married (we were keeping it a secret) and he said no. They said, "Sorry. We're only hiring married men." Then he got a job at a filling (gas) station working nights. He used to come and pick me up in the morning and take me to work.
Sometimes I'd walk to the station in the evening, and Russell Blackmer and Grethel Beardsley would borrow Howdy's car and go for a ride, and I'd stay at the station with Howdy. Then he got a job at Consumer's Power Company, Trail Street plant, starting January 1st, 1928.
At Christmas time we told that we were married. I remember Howdy's sister Margaret standing in front of my dad saying, "What are you going to do about it?" She was just teasing my dad. Mom and Dad were really great about it, as was everyone else.
Between Christmas and January sixteenth, when Howdy got his first paycheck, we stayed at my place and a few nights at Howdy's mother's. I was still working. January sixteenth we got our first apartment—it was on Franklin Street. I worked a few months, then Howdy didn't want me to work anymore (however, they used to call me in to work when they were busy).
The pay at the filling station was $21/week for seven 12-hour shifts from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. When I started back at Consumer's Power Company in the mailroom it was $70/month, 5-day week. Then January 1, 1928, I went in to Trail Street steam plant at $90/month with a raise every six months until the summer of 1929. I went to first operator at Blackstone substation at $125/month. During the 1929-32 Depression I was lowered to the bottom-most job available. One more lay-off and I would have been out.
Amy Hood and George Beal got married and had one daughter. Amy died of cancer years ago [1942]. Harris and Vera had one son and they remained in Toledo [see next paragraph]. Russell and Grethel got married and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary September 29, 1979 (Howdy played the violin at their wedding).
[Vera was well and still able to drive as of 2003 at age 95 but died in January 2004. Harris had died in April 1984 purportedly due to a hospital malpractice incident.
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