My father and mother had a storybook romance and courtship. Their’s was an unlikely match and the personal attraction between them must have been very strong. Indeed, I know it was from letters they wrote and saved from their courtship days. 

Because I thought it might be fun
When you came home your work all done –
To find a letter from me to you
I wrote to say: — “I love you” – I truly do.
From Helena to Rolly, Jan. 13. 1941

I love you so much, honey, that every move that I make, every thought,
and every plan seems to revolve around you. You dominate my thoughts like the irresistible force that keeps the sunflower seeking the warmth of the sun all day.
          From Rolly to Helena, Jan. 14, 1941

Believe me, this love and affection was not something that I saw as I was growing up. Finding their courtship letters is what first impelled me to start this family history project. I realized, Wow, there’s a lot that I don’t know!

I do know where and when they met: Huntinghouse Dancing Academy at 4616 North Clark Street, Chicago, February 1940. My mom saved the ten-lesson ticket for ballroom dance classes that began on the 12th of that month. She also saved the program ticket with “Rolly” written in for dances number one and number eight (a waltz). My father was 23 years old. My mother was 27 years old. They were both living on the far north side of the city. My mom had lived on the north side of Chicago her entire life, but it was a big change for my dad.

When my dad emigrated from Sweden in 1926 at the age of ten, he settled with his adoptive mother, father, and older sister in the Pullman neighborhood on the far southeast side of Chicago. My dad and his father may have made the move north in 1937, after the death of Josephine, my dad’s adoptive mother. In 1940 they were living in the household of my dad’s adoptive sister Florence and her husband Hilding Thim.

According to the census, in 1940 my dad was working as a clerk in a retail radio store and his income the previous year had been $1,800. My dad had attended technical school to study engineering (according to his cousin he got a scholarship to attend Pullman Tech). My mom was working as a public school teacher. Her income the previous year had been $1,500.  My mom had attend Chicago Normal (Teacher) College and also attained a Bachelor of Philosophy from Loyola University.

What was it that spurred my dad, younger, with less formal education, and an immigrant, to ask my mother if he could escort her home after dancing lessons? What prompted my mom to say yes? I will never know what the charm was, but I do know characteristics that they had in common throughout their adult lives that they may have seen in each other during those dancing lessons: a love of music and dancing, a curiosity about life, and personal ambition to make something of themselves. They were wed in August 1941.