Mort and Stubs AKA Dog

My dad and Uncle Harry Mac were best friends for most of their lives. My dad described Uncle Harry as more of a brother than a friend. I’m not sure how or where they met. I know that they loved and respected one another until their final days.

Their friendship began in their teens. They shared a lot of good times and some sorrows as well. They teased one another, worked together, shared everything, (including for a very brief time – minuscule in fact – my Aunt Ruth), and called each other Mort and Stubs. (Not all of the time, just those special moments when they knew that they were with their best friend). Uncle Harry was “Mort”. My dad was “Stubs” AKA Dog.

Ruth was my mom’s younger sister, second in line among five siblings composed of four girls and a boy. My dad, before he became Stubs, had one date with Ruth. One date, that’s it. I don’t even think that Harry was in Ruth’s dating book yet. Shortly after that, my dad started  dating Ruth’s  older sister, Kate. Kate eventually became know to me as Mom.

Stubs and Mort did a lot of things together. One of my earliest memories was a tale about a time when the two had a date with Kate and Ruth. Stubs with Kate and Mort with Ruth.  The girls loved to dance so they were going to one of the many dance halls that they frequented. The boys didn’t have a car so they borrowed one. They started off to pick up their dates but ran out of gas. They had twenty-five cents between them, so they invested in twenty-five cents worth of gas and the date was back on. Good thing that the dance was free and the girls just wanted to have fun. They weren’t worried about how much money was spent.

The girls liked to dance, and the boys liked the girls, so they danced when they had to and let the girls dance together as much as they wanted. They danced throughout their entire lives.

Mort and Stubs told a story of a time when they went calling on the girls and my grandfather came home unexpectedly. (I wasn’t around so I can’t confirm the story’s  accuracy.) The boys bailed out of the house and hid in a large dog house.  The large dog came home unexpectedly too and all hell broke loose.  Mort and Stubs scrambled for safety with the dog in chase.  Everyone survived.

Stubs served in World War II.  He enlisted in January of 1941.  He was scheduled to get out in January of 1942 but the United States declared war after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and he served until he was discharged in December of 1945.  Mort couldn’t join any branch of the service because of poor eyesight.

Before he was sent to serve in the Pacific, part of Stubs’ service time was in northern Michigan.  Mort reported that several times when Stubs was on leave he came home with two duffle bags.  One bag contained his personal belongings and the second was full of liquor.  Mort and Stubs liked to party and Stubs was able to purchase an ample supply through the PX (Post Exchange).  Mort was married to my Aunt Ruth by then but my mom was still just Kate.  At least once, perhaps twice, Stubs was late reporting back to camp and was AWOL.  He was having too much fun with the girls and his friend Mort.  Corporal Stubs was reduced in rank to Private Stubs.

What started as a teenage friendship between two boys grew into a extraordinary bond between two men who eventually married sisters.  That was not the path that they planned to take when they first met, but it is where life took them.  And they both lived a richer life because they loved each other.