Love Comes, 1935

The Great Depression moved slowly on. For Saginaw it was a miserable time. This was an industrial city, dependent upon good economic times, the boom of the auto industry. Many had taken to the streets. More had left or gone on relief. Those with jobs were the fortunate ones.

The Work Progress Administration (WPA) was formed and the Resettlement Administration had begun to move poor families into the so called Green Belt towns, creating some 200 towns for relocated farmers to start over. FDR was trying many approaches to bring the economy back.

Al had been employed by Lufkin Rule Co. now for 2 years. After work, he sometimes joined fellow workers for a beer or went to local clubs were he could meet others. There he encountered another Lufkin employee, a young lady, Winnifred (Winnie) Martindale, a recent graduate. He danced with her. He asked her out. Soon they were dating regularly.

Al was quite taken with the young Winnie. Al was a quiet man, who kept to himself and had only a few associates. He'd learned over the years, he may pack and move anytime. It didn't pay to get in too close with others. Family were the only ones who move along with you and even those drop off and die as time passes.

However, this time he had discovered something he had needed in life. Throughout his 18 years, the only woman he ever was close to was his mother. Now he had feelings, deep ones for someone else. He allowed himself to develop those feelings. The two kept seeing each other. Neither mother was overly happy over the relationship as it developed.

Winnie was fifth living child from a large family. Her father, Edwin, liked Al and got along well with him. Her mother, Ada, did not like him. She wanted her daughters, all of them, at home working and contributing to that home. That was their duty, in her eyes.

Al's mother did not want anyone else coming between her and her son. She had raised him and he was her's. No one was ever going to measure up to her and no one was going to be adequate in her judgment. Ransom, Al's stepfather, knew enough to step away from this situation and keep his opinion, whatever it was, to himself, and to accept Lillian's view as his own.

For the next five years, as love blossomed, the situation remained static. Al and Winnie were in love. Nothing that was said, done or tried altered that. They continued to work at the same place. They saw each other every day they could and they planned their future, based upon the limited income they had. Al waited patiently for enough money to be available to do what he had already decided was the correct thing to do. No one and nothing ever would alter his opinion, not about Winnie or any other decision he ever made afterward.