Mom and Dad got married on May 7, 1933, I think. I gleaned this from the letters; I never found a marriage license. They told me that they went to Cincinnati for their honeymoon.
It seems from the letter record that their first married address was 1504 Fletcher in Indianapolis. One time when visiting Aunt Alta and Uncle Clem, Clem took me to an apartment building where he said Mom and Dad had lived. We actually went in the building and walked up to the apartment. I remember the hallway was very narrow, dark and dingy and that I felt like we were intruding. There are some post cards, Christmas cards and a chain letter, all from Dad’s family, sent to this address. Nothing remains of any letters from Mom’s side of the family. I think they both worked at Real Silk, but there were a lot of lay offs in those days so its not clear how they were doing.
Mom and Dad, of course, ended up in Detroit, but their situation was pretty unstable for some years. Most of the letter record from these years are between Mom and Dad when they were apart. Dad would work for a while, then Mom would come to Detroit; he’d get laid off and they’d often both go back to Indiana, then he’d get called back, find an apartment and Mom would come back to Detroit. The letters from this period are often poignant and a chronicle of the times. Aunt Alta and Mom corresponded regularly as well.
There is a single letter from Dad in Detroit to Mom before they were married, dated July 15, 1932. Dad is staying with his brother Paul who eventually got Dad on at National Twist Drill. The address is 15120 Greydale in northwest Detroit (near Fenkell and Lahser). I assume Dad was there looking for work; its not clear if he ever worked in Detroit this trip.
The first indication, in a letter from Dad to Mom, of Dad working in Detroit is June of 1936. Dad talks about playing softball (he was quite a pitcher). Dad drew $40 and said he was going to send $10 to Darlene (I assume that was his ex-wife). I think Mom was still working at Real Silk.
In a letter from Dad to Mom, dated November 30, 1936, Dad is now living at 7638 John R in Detroit; Mom is living at 416 N. New Jersey, in Indianapolis. I think Dad lives about three blocks from National Twist Drill. Dad told me that NTD was then located on Grand Boulevard, just east of Woodward. Dad must have been laid off because the letter suggests that he had been in Indiana. Mom’s brother Dick came back with Dad and they are sharing a room while they both look for work. When they went to NTD, Dad got on because he had worked there before and knew Paul Wilson. Room was $3.50 a week, meals $.30, gas $.14 per gallon. An undated letter from about this time indicates that Dick is going back to Indiana. Dad needs to borrow $10 from Mom, and won’t have any money for Christmas presents. In another undated letter about the same time, Dad got the money order from Mom. Dad made $20 for 3¾ days work. Dad will send some money to pay debts, and then Mom can come back to Detroit (its unclear whether Mom had been to Detroit for a visit, or whether she lived with Dad for a while). If Mom comes, it sounds like she would go back again. However in a letter from Mom to Dad, dated December 5, 1936, Mom talks about a slumber party at Alta’s and apparently lets it slip that it is really a farewell party.
Special delivery letter: Mom arriving Christmas Eve by bus. She doesn’t want to spend her precious time with Paul and Vera, too much drinking. It looks like Mom went back on January 11. Dad is now living at 3032 E. Grand Boulevard which is very close to the John R address. It looks like Mom and Dad got this place while she was here. There was a hint that Mom will be coming back in about a week. A letter from Dad to Mom on January 13, 1937 indicates she’ll be back in Detroit in three days, with a radio. A letter from Alta to Mom indicates that Mom told Alta she wanted to go home, but Dad coaxed her into staying.
The letter record is a little confusing. A March 1, 1937 letter indicates that Mom is in Detroit, but she may have gone home and come back. But there is a March 4 letter from Mom to Dad, just an envelope with nothing in it. But Alta writes Mom again in Detroit on March 12. They apparently have a line on a house. Asher and Dick are talking about bringing their furniture to Detroit. The house ended up falling through.
Several letters mention strikes. This was the year that GM had the famous sit-down strike in Flint. I couldn’t find any mention National Twist Drill striking, but if GM shut down it could well mean layoffs in associated industries.
As of May 20, 1937, Mom is still in Detroit on Grand Boulevard. On June 1, a letter from Mom to Dad at Greydale Indicates Dad is working again, but he had been in Indiana just a few days before this letter. So he must have been laid off and was called back, and staying once again on Greydale. It sounds like he is looking for a house. They are broke. Mom says things are going to be pretty tough if Dad can’t get a loan. Mom wants Dad to send money to Darlene. The loan ended up falling through and Mom has to sign for it.
A June 3 letter indicates Mom is going back up to Detroit and wants Dad to rent a sleeping room for a few days, I guess so they won’t have to stay at Paul and Vera’s. Mom has $27 saved. In a June 7 letter it looks like they are figuring out that Mom is pregnant with Dave. They are going to rent an apartment and then Asher is going to move their furniture up.
It looks like Mom is finally back in Detroit by July 19. In this letter to Alta, Mom knows for sure she is pregnant. They are now living at 324 Hendrie, right near the Wayne State’s campus. While moving in to this apartment, they had their belongings stolen out of the car; I remember Mom and Dad telling me about this. There is a rant from both Aunt Vivian and Uncle Clem about the ‘colored’ problem. Both Dave and Steve were born while Mom and Dad lived on Hendrie. They lived on Hendrie from June 1937 until January 1939, approximately. The letters seem to indicate that Dad was laid off, but the caretaker stored their stuff in anticipation of them returning.
I think Dad was laid off just over a year during this time period. It appears that Mom stayed in Thorntown for the most part, but Dad spent some time at Greydale. Mom writes to Dad that Dave was five weeks old when they left (January 1938) and Steve will be five weeks old when they return (early March 1939). I remember Mom and Dad saying that the worst of it all for them was the downturn in 1938-39. Mom told me a poignant story about this period. Uncles Asher and Dick had a service station in Thorntown at the time. While they were living in Thorntown, Dad helped at the gas station because they were staying for free with relatives. Dad wasn’t smoking his pipe, and Mom asked him why. He said that he had quit. The truth was that he didn’t have any money to by tobacco. Mom asked Asher and Dick if they could give Dad a little money for tobacco.
By February, 1939, Dad is back at Greydale, but they are able to rent a house at 15444 Blackstone. The first dated letter at this address is April 19, 1939. It appears they stayed there about six months or so. The first 15701 Blackstone letter is dated December, 1939.
It seems that they were really broke when they got the house it 15444. It’s a little puzzling that they were able to qualify since work was so sketchy. But Mom writes that she had $75, $25 that she saved and $50 from selling their old Dodge, which had been in Indiana all this time. Mom was cutting hair for 25 cents. Dad was supposed to be called back after they moved in.
There are some poignant stories from this time. In a letter, Mom asks Alta to loan her $3 so they can pay their rent. I remember Mom talking about Dad looking for work, and he would come home every day dejected. I guess Mom and Dave and Steve would watch for Dad when he came home. One day, she could tell just by the way he was walking that he had gotten a job. I remember Mom telling me how they were flat broke and Steve’s birthday was coming up (I think it was his first birthday). They of course had no money for a present. So Dad went out with a can of paint and a brush, knocking on doors, asking if people wanted their house number painted on their house. He made enough to buy Steve a present. Mom said in a letter to Alta that they were buying ice on credit. The house doesn’t seem to have a good heating system; they are talking about buying oil burners.
I think by December, 1939, they moved down the street to 15701 Blackstone. We rented this house until the Spring of 1958, when we moved to Ferndale. Times were still hard. Mom talks about wanting to go to Sunday school (WHAT!?), but their clothes are so shabby, they backed out.
With the war going on in Europe, it seems like Dad’s work is picking up, in fact, he is working overtime in 1941. In a November letter (before Pearl Harbor) from Mom to Alta, they are worried about layoffs as Detroit switches to defense production. The economy of course picks up and Mom and Dad do well. Dad buys a new 1942 Pontiac (the only new car he ever owned). Mom works as a riveter at the Willow Run plant outside Detroit.
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From Dad’s first employment in Detroit in 1936 through early 1942, Mom talks longingly of moving back to Thorntown. Most of the correspondence around this time is between Mom and Alta, so its hard to know what Dad thought. But the longing for small town life is understandable, considering what a difficult time they had. Even with the letter record, its hard to know how many times they moved back and forth from Detroit and Indiana. Work doing the depression was unpredictable. They were always broke.
Another issue for them was the black population. When they lived on Hendrie, Mom made several references to how upset she was about blacks moving on to the block, and into the building where they lived. For all my life, mom was virulently anti-racist, so this is a surprise. Phil told me that he thought Mom really put a lot of pressure on Dad for his racist tendencies. I never heard either Dad or Mom say a racist word.
In their early married years, Dad apparently had some legal troubles. When Mom was still in Indiana, she spoke of Room 14, which is, I think, a euphemism for court. She talks of paying off some court costs and fines, and indicates that the court was pleased when Dad was working in Detroit and sending payments to court. Not sure what the case was about, but Dad told me he had been in jail once when he defended Mom when she was crossing a picket line. As Mom tells it, Real Silk management was striking but the workers were not, and they wanted the workers to strike as well even though there was no benefit for them. Times being what they were, Mom felt like she had to cross the picket line. She was apparently jostled by some of the strikers and Dad intervened with a tire iron, and spent the night, at least, in jail.
I think they owned cars in Detroit, but they speak of such bad luck with cars. They lived until 1942 without a car by choice. So when they moved to northwest Detroit, it must have been difficult for Dad to get to work. He may well have ridden with someone else. Dad was anticipating working at the new shop in Rochester so I car may have become a necessity.
So, I think the trying times just made it easy to long for the good old, small town days. As the economy started to pick up, and children started to come, they probably realized that there fortunes would be better in Detroit.
Wilson Cones Family History 