How I Met My Husband

Having been assigned my next subject, I realized I quite like remembering this special time in my life. But going back 65 years also makes me think, Wow, how time passes.

As usual, my room mates, five in all, enjoyed Saturday nights. Our favorite activity was dancing and our favorite place was the Crescent Ballroom, located on 6th Avenue between Pike and Pine and on the second floor above several shops.
We also like the Trianon Ballroom but it was much farther North and harder to get to.
Whenever the big bands came to Seattle, they came to the Trianon and we'd be there and cancing to the Tommy Dorsey Band, his brother Jimmy Dorsey's Band, Benny Goodman and the greatest of all, Glenn Miller.

Back to the Crescent Ballroom. The place we lived in was an old mansion. The nuns lived in the upstairs and the six of us lived in what must have been a large living room. There was a lovely old fireplace but it was never used. It was located at 9th and Madison. There is a large building here now named after St. Frances of Cassini and is mostly doctors offices and clinics. It was easy to walk to the ballroom except on the way back because of the steep hills.

On a Saturday night in October 1942, about two weeks before my nineteenth birthday, we were at the ballroom and having a great time. I was very fortunate as I never had to sit out a dance. I loved all kinds of dances, especially jitterbugging and what are now called swing dances. About an hour into the dance I noticed this very nice looking sailor who seemed to be always watching me. Eventually, when I took time out to have a bottle of pop, he came up to me. He introduced himself as Fred Hanis and asked if he could have the next dance. He was a beautiful dancer and I agreed when he asked if he could have the next dance and the next.

When the band took a break he asked me to join him at a booth and we talked and talked and danced and danced. And we enjoyed it so much we stayed for the swing shift dance. This was from midnight to 3:00. ( I can feel some eyebrows raising) He then asked if he could walk me home and on the way he took me to breakfast. Before he left me he asked if I would go out with him the following Friday night and I agreed. He then, like the smoothie he was, kissed me on the forehead and I was impressed. On Friday night we went to the movie at the Fifth Avenue
Theatre but I can't remember what movie it was. I do rememer that he picked me up and brought me home in a taxi. Very Impressive.

He called me every night. There was one phone for the six of us, so it was hard to get through but he was persistent. At this time he was a radioman stationed on Bainbridge Island. The next Saturday night we met at the Crescent again and danced a lot. I didn't dance every dance with him as my favorite jitterbug partner was there. He was a soldier from New Jersy and most all the girls agreed the men from New Jersey were the best at the jitterbug. Fred waited and insisted he be the one to walk me home.

On my birthday, November 4th, he called and said he had something important to tell me. He said, "since I am going to marry you I need to tell you my name is Martin and my family call me Marty." My response was that as far as I was concerned his name was Fred and as for marriage I wasn't planning on that with him or anyone else. He said I could call him anything I wanted and I would be marrying him as he loved me and would forever.

Because of religious differences and the fact that he was a drinker, I wouldn't go steady with him, although I really loved him. He became very frustrated and finally said he would quit drinking if I would quit dating and dancing with anyone else. Much to my surprise and joy, he did quit drinking, so I quit dating.

As you all know he was Fred for the rest of his life, except to his family in Kansas. Two years and two months from when we met we were married and LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER for fifty two years and nine days.

Addendum to first blog and How I met my Husband

Since I can't figure out how to edit my first blog,I'll do it this way. The second time I wrote three times a day it was supposed to reference that I also washed all the dishes from those thirty trays.



I also want to add that I did not think then nor do I think now that I had a pretty bad time of things. Keep in mind I was a healthy sixteen year old, our area was still deep in a depression and I was pleased and proud to be earning my own living and not a burden on my parents. At that time the only other two alternatives to working was either living on my parents or getting married. The opportunities to get married were there but that certainly was not antthing I wanted at that time.

My Work Experiences

Due to the urging of my darling granddaughter, Jamie, (actually more like ordering) I have agreed to write about my first job. This job started two weeks after I graduaded from High School in May 31, 1940. I went from my home in Taylor, to Seattle. A great leap for a green, shy, country girl. I went to work at what was then the Columbus Hospital, which was run by the
Sacred Heart Sisters of the Catholic Church. My first job was putting bedpans in a sterilizer and then three times a day carrying heavy metal trays for thirty patients three times a day. Fun, oh no. Tiring, oh yes! I worked ten hours a day for twenty five dollars a month and my board and room.
After the third month the Mother Superior told me to dress up in a skirt and blouse, not my Ward Maid uniform, as I was to learn how to operate the elevator which I thought was a great advancement as when there were no people to take up or down, I was able to sit on a stool.
Three months later, the Mother Superior called me into her office and asked if I would like to learn to be a receptionist and switch board operator. Again I was more than willing. I then worked only nine hours a day and got a $5.00 a month raise.

Then Sister Angelina who was the pharmacist and accountant asked if I was willing to work extra hours, from ten to midnight, each night and she would teach me bookkeeping and accounting. It was on the job training and if I nodded off she would rap me across the knuckles, and having very bony knuckles, it certainly hurt enough to make me very alert. I am forever
grateful to these good sisters as the training and education I received made it possible for me to work in banking and later as General Manager and Administrative Officer of special districts.
It is from the pension I earned as this last job that I now live as comfortably as I do.