“I thought I was going somewhere else. I was planning on going somewhere else. But I didn’t.”

Transcript for I Thought I Was Stuck

I didn’t think I was going to be the one left behind, but his name was Elmer, and he was a nice man. I miss him.

I was not thinking about anybody, anywhere at that time. I was too busy trying to figure out where am I going to get a job and how am I going to survive. He came in and we were introduced, and I said, “Hi,” and he said, “How are you?” and I was out the door, I was gone. A couple of days later, my aunt said, “Bea, Elmer asked if he could talk to you.” And I said, “What?” And she said, “Come on now.” So I go out and I say, “Okay, so hey, how you doing?” And he said, “Hey, you want to go to a movie?” And I said, “No. Maybe next time okay?” So I put him off a couple of times. And then I was surprised — because I had to catch the bus to go to work — he was sitting out there one day with the car, and he blew his horn, which I don’t pay any attention to anybody blowing their horn because I don’t know who you are in the first place, and I kept on going, so the car kind of, you know, how a car kind of slowly drives down the street… And he leaned over and he said, “Do you remember who I am?” And I leaned over and said, “Well, I think… is your name Elmer?” Dumb. Totally stupid. He said, “Yeah, that’s me.” And he said, “Do you want to go to a movie?” I said, “I tell you what. Come on in the house. We’ll talk about it.” And it went from there. We we got to know each other and about a year later we got married. Yeah.

I don’t know if you remember the snow storm in ‘67. There were five of us that got stuck together on the train, got to talking and communicating with each other, and said, “How are we going to get home?” But we were lucky enough that one of the ladies on the last South Shore train, her friend picked her up in a pickup truck. “Can’t might all of you can’t get in the front seat, but maybe you can ride in the back.” And that’s how we got home. When I got home, the snow was, I couldn’t even get in my front door. I had to go around to the back door, and push it away from the door in order to get in. I was in that house by myself for the whole time. Elmer was stuck somewhere, and here I am stuck at home, and from that day on, I said, “I am not going to Chicago for another job.”

Before I got married, I thought I was going somewhere else. I had planned on going somewhere else. But I didn’t. You know, before I got married, at that time I thought I was stuck here, but not anymore I don’t.

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