Greta & George

A true story - told first person.

Me and your grandpa met on the trolley.

That summer, I was down in Miami, Florida, staying with my Aunt Ev, who had a yacht on the river. She was by herself because her husband worked in Washington at the Pentagon. So she called and asked if I would come down and stay with her. I was, you know, I was about eighteen. So I went.

And we got on the bus there and Aunt Ev says to me, “Greta, well there’s a good lookin’ feller, there.” George was there on the trolley with his buddy Teddy and a couple other guys, you know.

But George caught my eye. I said, “Oh, yeah he is.”

And then we got off the trolley, and you know what, those boys got off of the trolley with us, and started talking to us. You know, we just got acquainted. You know, like, saying hello. Aunt Ev started it. She was the instigator of it.

And I wasn’t married, of course. I was eighteen. I lived on the yacht with Aunt Ev. She had a big, big boat " a big yacht. Eighty-six foot yacht. So Aunt Ev invited him over. You know, she liked him. He was going to school at Miami, Florida, there.

And so they came over later. They’re a’coming and here I am, I didn’t even think they’d come. I thought, oh, yeah, sure. And I’m there in an old pair of dungarees with holes in it and everything painting the deck. I worked, too, while I was there. We had to get the yacht fixed up, you know, help decorate it and everything. Oh, it was big and beautiful. They sold it for half a million dollars, Aunt Ev did.

And in the meantime, we invited George over to the yacht, and we had a little lunch for him. And then they was three of the boys that lived together in South Miami, and they all went to Miami Florida in school, you know. Real nice boys. One was Jewish, one was Greek, and one was Italian. They was all different.

But anyway, George said to Teddy, “You know, I like that girl.” And, oh, I was quiet. I didn’t say a word.

That put a quietness on me! I didn’t know what to say! Anyway, George, he was very friendly right away, and I liked it. He was very nice, very polite, very… everything. Oh, I just thought he was it, you know.

But anyway, that’s the way it started, and we just kept calling each other. And we saw each other maybe half a dozen times, you know, just together with him and his friends.

Then Mama got sick and I had to come home. You know, to be with her in Crossville. George took me to the station to catch the bus. Then he went home to Arlington, Massachusetts when school was out.

Now, this is what happened:

We wrote letters while we were away. I was working, and I didn’t have time to write a letter every day. He was working, too, but he still wrote me a letter every day. If the Braves were winning, he’d tell me about it. Or if the sun was shining, he’d put a little [drawing of a] sun up here to tell me that the sun was shining. And if it was raining, he’d [draw rain]. He was so precise in his letters, not romantic letters, but you know, like he wanted to get acquainted more with me.

But we talked. He called me all the time, too.

But anyway, he came down to visit, and he was still in school. He was gonna stay a week, but he stayed two weeks, he decided.

Well, my family lived on Cleveland Street, and I was a waitress for Roy Williams, who I worked for before I met George. And he came down and stayed two weeks, and me and my sister, Mary Lou, worked nights at the restaurant. And he’d come down and stay, and he stayed at the Hotel Henry. As me and Mary Lou would go home, we’d stop at the motel where he stayed and visit with him before we went home and went to bed.

And one day we were visiting and he said, “You know, what we should do is get married because if I go back and you stay here, you’ll find somebody or I’ll find somebody.”

We got married in the Greek Church. You know, his mother was living and she was Greek Orthodox, and he did it to please her. So we got married in the Greek Orthodox Church in Springfield, Massachusetts. I had John in Massachusetts so we lived there until John was six months old. Then George went back and finished his last year in college.

He went to school with Captain Kangaroo and Castro. I remember him telling me about those two famous people. And he graduated with them.

Then we came to Ohio. And that’s where Jim and your dad was born.

From Ohio we moved back to Crossville and bought a restaurant, the B&W Restaurant. They’d bring you to the restaurant, and you’d eat with us. You were just a little child then.

Your grandpa was a good man, but he did not know the Lord when we got married. See Greek Orthodox are baptized into that and they think they get saved by their rituals. They live by that. But see, he came down here, and he got saved in Ohio and was baptized there. The preacher at the church we went to was just a little short guy, and everybody says, “Oh! You’ll never get Big George under the water!” He said, “You let me and Big George figure that out. If we have to, we’ll both go under.” Because George was six-two.

Oh, and he loved his grandchildren. Oh my goodness, yes. He did love his grand children, all of them. From the beginning to the end. Yes, you guys would come spend the night with us, or I would come spend the night with you if your mom or dad went out or anything. And we just got along good.

We never did have no problems because George would never let you stay mad at him. Uh-uh. He’d talk you right out of it. Sometimes I’d get provoked at him. You know how that is. “Oh,” he said, “no that ain’ta gonna work.” No, he wouldn’t let you stay mad at him at all.

But he loved all of his grandchildren, honey. But now, Tiffany didn’t get to see him. And Georgie didn’t either. And Andy, I don’t know… Because George has been gone for quite a while…

Your mom would bring you here in your punkin seat, and you would sit here and watch cartoons. But then when it was time for you to go to sleep, if he was here, he would get you up on his stomach and let you go to sleep there " both of you. And you would sleep.

Oh, he loved his grandchildren, honey, better than anything. He thought his grandchildren was great, and they all were.