Chapter 47

I write now of the years from 1935 to 1942.

Monumental legislation was passed that affected all our lives...the Social Security in 1935, and the DRAFT in 1940, to say nothing of the declaration of war in 1941!

Hitler had marched into Poland during my senior year in high school in 1939 and World War 2 had started in Europe. All the young men who had registered were worried about their draft status. Martha had graduated in 1938 and had met Harry Lundstrom. She was in love and rejected Campbell's offer of a room upstairs in the Shufelt home and Junior College there. Instead she found a job as a file clerk in a department store in Chicago and rented the room vacated by Eric at Hopf's two-flat.

Harry joined the Navy and, after six months at Navy Pier in Chicago, was sent to Miami. They were married in the back yard in Des Plaines, and Martha followed Harry to Miami where he spent all of WW2 stateside. Helen quit school at the beginning of her sophomore year at Maine, and at sixteen, became engaged to a twenty year old man! Mother was furious, and rightly so made Helen return the ring. It wasn't long before Helen became engaged again, to Irv's good friend Vensel Voightlander! The two of them made frequent trips to Webster, Wisconsin to visit Irv, who was living with the Conroy family.

In 1940 I was living and working at The Charm House in Des Plaines. The Charm House was a beautifully restored Victorian mansion furnished and filled with American antiques and had a Tea Room where luncheons were served and afternoon teas. I was a guide on tours through the mansion, and also worked as a server in the Tea Room. I loved my job and loved living there...