I’D LIKE SOME OF THAT
Newcomer acted as if he already lived there.
When my sister Bonnie came home from the Peace Corps in Tanzania in 1966, I was working downtown, so we found an apartment together in Milwaukee’s Little Italy, surrounded by Italian-American families. It was an enchanting and eye-opening change from the suburban neighborhood I’d grown up in.
After six months, my sister rejoined the Peace Corps in Korea and I was moving out.
I’d just had spaghetti and meatballs for lunch when I heard a rap on the door.
There was the landlady, with three fellows to see the apartment. She was supposed to give me 24 hours’ notice before showing up. What was I supposed to do? Of course I let them in.
She led two guys to the living room but one followed me back into the kitchen. “What’s for lunch?” he asked.
Despite his brazenness I told him there was leftover spaghetti. While I washed dishes, he opened my refrigerator and helped himself, finding a pan and heating the spaghetti. He also served himself a glass of milk before he sat down at my kitchen table to eat and chat.
His name was Larry. I noticed the Marine tattoo on his arm—he’d been in Vietnam.
Then he washed his dishes, thanked me and rejoined his buddies. But before they left, Larry invited me to a neighborhood fair. I said yes.
We ate, went on rides and talked. And talked. And talked. Drinking a six-pack of Pepsi, we got pretty buzzed, maybe the reason I was able to stay awake to keep talking. Or maybe it was because we had so much to say to each other.
We compared notes on our upbringings.
From a different side of town, he was raised Catholic. I was Methodist. His family had two girls and a boy, same as mine. And he probably didn’t ever want to get married. I didn’t care unless I met the right guy.
The next week I moved in with roommates while Larry and his buddies moved into my old apartment. He started showing up Sunday nights with a bag of George Webb sliders, whether I was home or not. My roommates liked that.
Larry and I kept talking and became fast friends. We got engaged on Easter 1967 and married in August 1968. And we still do a lot of talking.