MEETING The Family

A week after the USO Dance, Marvin was in Cerro Gordo, Illinois for the football game on a weekend pass. Martha lived with with her parents. Cleo & Wally Miller (an Illinois state trooper) knew Marv was coming so they sat in the squad car waiting to check him out.

Marvin Drove A '37 Dodge ... Black With 2 Blue Fenders ... Not Quite As Clean As This One

DAD's Story:  The first person I met when I arrived at the football game was Wally Miller, Martha's uncle and an Illinois state trooper. He directed me to Martha in the stands. Don't remember much about the game ... "what game?"

Slept on the couch at Martha's parents. Francis her brother was very cool. Robert & Marcia were friendly. Don't remember much about Ernie (Martha's Dad) but her mother Maude was friendly. Before I left to return to Chanute I already had a date for the next weekend in Cerro Gordo.

Hocked my watch for enough money to drive to see Martha. Watch only cost me $20 and I would hock it for $10 and pay back $15 when I needed cash ... which was every month.

Martha ADAMS (age 16) at Cerro Gordo House

MOM's Story:  Must have made a good impression because Marvin came to Cerro Gordo the next weekend for the Monticello/Cerro Gordo football game. Uncle Wally Miller (an Illinois state trooper) and his wife Cleo Miller were sitting in the squad car at the ball field and Marvin headed to them and introduced himself because I'd told him I had an uncle in the State Police. We all remained fast friends from that day forward.

Marvin WOOD at the Cerro Gordo House

"Marv was so young and good looking with the curl on his forehead". Cerro Gordo was not used to soldiers, Chanute was not that close. My Dad and brother Francis didn't have much to say to Marvin ... they had both been soldiers and knew a few things. My Mom said he could spend the night and he slept on the sofa in the front room of my parent's house. Before Marv left we had a date for the next weekend in Cerro Gordo.

USO DANCE -- From Across The Room

Marvin WOOD (my father) and Martha ADAMS (my mother) met at a USO dance at the Service Club on Chanute AFB in Rantoul, Illinois. The date was October 22, 1949, Martha has just turned 20 a few days before the dance.  Marvin was 21 and an Airman in an aircraft maintenance training class at Chanute AFB.

USO Dance From The 1940s (Not A Family Picture)

DAD's Story:  On our way to the tavern in Rantoul to get drunk on a Saturday night and said "hey, there's a dance at the USO let's go see what's going on". Johnny Devitt (my buddy) and I walked in the door and looked across the dance floor and there was Martha in all her glory ... a sweater girl! I looked at her and Johnny looked at her and we both headed her way but I got there first. "Sorry Johnny!"

We danced all night long, talked a little, lied about our names (which was normal) and had a great time. I was just divorced and Martha was dating a farmer. Walked her to the bus, she invited me to the football game the next weekend in Cerro Gordo and I kissed her goodnight.

In store was a weekend of bliss and rapture! That night after leaving the dance I sat down and wrote the girl I was chasing in Kenosha, Wisconsin and told her that I'd met the girl I was going to marry ... "sorry" again for the second time that night, but not really.

Marvin's air training certificate and class photo, Chanute AFB.

MOM's Story:  The Catholic Girl's Bus from Decatur, Illinois was going to a USO Dance with the soldiers at Chanute AFB in Rantoul, Illinois.  Patsy, a classmate from high school, went with me. This was my first and last venture to a USO dance.

Marvin came across the dance floor when he entered the auditorium and asked me to dance and we did the rest of the night. We gave each other fake names. When I went to get on the bus we told each other who we really we were and where we lived. We kissed each other goodbye ... the first kiss!  I didn't tell my farmer goodbye.