Tom Remembers Margaret When They Were Young

Excerpt from Thomas A. Sullivan's Memories, March 4, 1994.

"Laura, Margaret's mother, and my mother were friends having worked together.  Before I was ten they would exchange gifts for the children. At Christmas time I would take the streetcar down to Gladys Ave., near Garfield Park, with a gift for Margaret and bring home my gift.  Margaret then was a skinny kid with curls. (When we were quite small our mothers would walk together with us.  Margaret had a buggy, and I would have to take turns riding in it so she could take turns pushing it, a routine I resented, after all I was four and she was only two, and a girl besides.) After a couple of years of the trips to exchange gifts at Christmas I rebelled at the futility of it and convinced the ladies to drop the practice.

"I didn't see Margaret until I met her at a dance when she was 17 and I was 19.  I took her home in a cab, she had on a big hat and I had trouble kissing her.  I next met her at a wake and took her for a ride in our car while the grownups visited.  We would date semi-regularly for the next year or so but not on weekends.   One day she announced that I had to take her out on Saturday nights, otherwise she had nothing to talk about at Rosary College with the girls on Monday morning, so she would have to get someone else to escort her.  I was hooked!  I didn't mind it too much as it was time I quite hanging around bowling allies, etc.  Rosary had a dance at which only boys from Loyola could be invited.  There was an accident with a street car and Margaret got $150 cash settlement.  I resented meeting the boy from Loyola visiting her during her convalescence and we decided to go steady.  The next summer I got a job at Western Electric and dropped school.  Margaret quite Rosary and went to Moser Business School.  Before the end of the year we married.  We rented a one-room apartment at 5659 Washington Blvd."

Note: In looking for 5659 W. Washington Blvd, it appears the building has been torn down.