After Steve and I married in 1960 we went to the University of Nebraska where Steve had a fellowship to obtain his master’s in Bio-Medical Engineering and I would complete my requirements for a B.S in Mathematics. After two years of academics, we then traveled to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland where Steve would start his 2-year ROTC obligation. I was 22 years old.
My first priority was to find a job. The only things available were what you would find in any little town like a clerk or some kind of manual job. I came up with the idea that perhaps I could find a substitute teacher position although my math degree was not in education but in science. I went for an interview for such a position. I found that they had an opening for a math teacher which they had been unable to fill and school started the following week. They offered me the position on the spot and I grabbed the offer.
Steve was in charge of training at the base. As a result, the army was going to send him to ‘Fallout Shelter Manager’ instructors’ school in New York City. Neither of us had ever been to New York so we decided I would drive up and meet him for the weekend. We had no idea where to meet. Therefor he would go to New York first and find out where to meet and call me.
On Thursday, the day before I was planning to drive to New York, I got a message from him to meet at Holland Tunnel exit Friday when I went to work, I asked other faculty their opinion of meeting at Holland Tunnel exit. They were rolling in the aisles laughing about that plan and assured me such was impossible. Steve and I could not speak to each other directly because he was in a fallout shelter (surprise! No phones in there) and I was in a classroom teaching (no phone in there either),
The school vice principle volunteered to be my messenger and he went to his office to call Steve’s messenger that Holland Tunnel was out. A couple of hours later he tapped on my classroom door and gave me a piece of paper with a street address on it. That is where Steve said he would meet me. Finding the place to was a challenge because we did not have cell phones with a GPS APP in the old days.
Can you believe it, I actually found this address? Secondly, I found a parking place! Then I proceeded to walk to the designated corner. I was in Harlem but was not familiar with Harlem’s reputation. I had been waiting about 15 minutes when the first derelict came up and hit on me. I probably responded with something cool like “No thank you”. In retrospect a better response would have been “Not right now, you silver tongued devil.” I didn’t think of that and besides I was really scared. Within the next 10 minutes, two more derelicts hit on me.
In the middle of the intersection there was a policeman directing traffic. I glanced at him and noticed he was walking towards me. When he got to me, he said “Mam it is against the law in New York City to stand on a corner and solicit.” That did it, I had a major meltdown and boo-hooed so hard I couldn’t talk. When I was able, I told him about the situation I was in. He replied “come out in the street and stand with me and the creeps will leave you alone. I gladly accepted his offer.
While I was standing with him out in the street, he tried to cheer me up. He kept telling me that my husband had probably found another girl in the city and that was why he was so late. I kept assuring him that could not possibly be true. He was now over an hour late. I look up and behold there was my husband getting off the subway with some girl hanging off his arm. The policeman started laughing so hard he almost stopped directing traffic. Steve said he was late because when he was crossing the street, he ran into a Will Roger’s classmate (Kay Manon WR ‘55) and took her out to dinner. Rage started feeling me up and I was thinking ‘and when was the last time you took ME out to dinner?’ Can you imagine how mad I was? My husband had left me standing for over an hour on a corner in a strange city being a target for derelicts!
That did NOT turn out to be a good weekend! The only consolation I have is I just told him I wrote the story of New York and Kay Manon and did he want to read it? He said ‘no’.