After Ruth and I married in the fall of 1971, we moved into my apartment with my roommate, Chuck. Since we eloped, we didn’t have much of an opportunity to consider our living arrangements until we were on the return trip from Vegas. I had recently moved into a new apartment, and Ruth had signed an updated agreement with her roommate, Chris. Chuck had been living with me in a two unit rental property that I owned. He and I decided to move into a “bachelor” apartment because we believed that it would be more appealing to any girls that we might be dating. The house was in an old section of town, and the apartment was new.
Ruth and I had another friend, Mike Smith, who was returning to Kalamazoo. He had talked about moving in with Chuck and me, so we knew we could assign my portion of the lease to him. We agreed to continue to pay Ruth’s portion of the rental agreement with Chris through the end of the year.
Ruth, Chuck and I lived together for about three months. One of my rental units was leased to a brother/sister duo who stopped paying their rent. I began eviction proceedings. Ruth and I planned to relocate to the house as soon as the brother/sister combo vacated the premises. Mike got a new job working for the city and moved in with us earlier than expected. He slept on the couch as the saga unfolded.
A court date was set for an eviction hearing in mid-December. I took the day off of work so that I could plead my case. I showed up but the brother/sister duo failed to appear. The judge listened to me, determined that the duo should move, and gave them thirty days to do so. What the #&@! Why should they get more time to mooch off me? I didn’t understand, but a ruling is a ruling.
Mike’s city job was in the same building as the court so I stopped in to see him. I told him what the judge had ruled and we developed a plan of our own. We drove over to the house. Luckily the moochers were at home. We knocked on the door, the brother of the duo answered, and Mike did the talking. He flashed his open wallet, identified himself as a city inspector, and told the man that he had until 5:00 p.m. to “vacate the premises”. And then he said, “I’ll be back at 5:30, and if you’re not out, I’ll have all of your belongings placed on the curb.”
It was a major bluff and it worked. We returned at 5:30 and they were placing the last few items in a pickup truck. Mike stood in the doorway as they loaded the last piece of furniture.
Ruth and I started cleaning the place the following week-end. The living room carpet was threadbare so we decided to tear it out. As we pulled on the carpet, it exploded into our eyes. We completed the removal, went back to our shared apartment, and we both woke the next morning with pinkeye. It was horrible.
We missed a couple of days of work, and while we were off, Ruth’s parents invited us to live with them while we cleaned out our new home. We accepted and Michael moved from the couch to our vacated room.
Ruth’s dad was a carpenter. He went with us to help get the apartment ready. We painted all of the walls and trim, put down new tile floors in the kitchen and bath, installed a shower, cleaned and polished the wood floors in the dining and living rooms, and built two closets in our single bedroom. Ruth’s dad built the closets and we did the rest. We worked on week-ends, and when Christmas break arrived, we completed the job.
We ended up living with Ruth’s parents for three weeks. They were wonderful supporters who wanted to make sure that we got off to a good start together. I learned a lot watching Ruth’s dad use his carpentry skills. For him it was a labor of love. For me it was a valued education.
That chapter of our life together began on September 11, 1971 . As of today we’ve been married two-thirds of our lives. We’re not the same two people that ran away to Vegas to get married 48 falls ago, but as I’ve said before, so far – so good.
(If you’re interested in how this all began check out these blogs from the winter of 2017.)
Congratulations to both of you! Undoubtedly it was the two separate closets that helped make things work out so well! Many more years for you both!