When it came time for me to go to high school I had to go to Manchester. The first year my parents rented a room for me up there with kitchen privileges. The next year I rode back and forth, and the third year I was going to work for my room and board with a family. I made the mistake of telling my mother that one night when they had a party they gave me a drink and told me a story which I repeated to her. She made me move home!
When I graduated from high school Marian's old boss, a dentist, (she had married Lloyd Lee and quit) was looking for an assistant. He asked me to come to work for him as a dental assistant. Of course, he had to train me. While I was there his brother, (an M.D.) came in to the office with him and I also helped him. This was in 1941 when the draft had begun and he volunteered to give the physicals for the draftees. One day when the dentist was out of town the doctor had an early appointment for a draft physical for an Orville Eckberg, Dean of Lenox College. I thought to myself, anyone old enough to be dean of a college should be married. I don't feel sorry for him. The doctor was very late coming in and the dean and I had a very nice conversation. After he left I wished there had been some way to give him my name. 
A couple of weeks later a friend, Ike McCarthy, a car saleman in Manchester, told me that he had a friend who was the dean of Lenox College who would like a date with me. Would I go? Of course I did, and we dated steady after that. He had to leave in June to go to the Army. Because of his age he got out after his three months basic training. I had wanted him to come home for his birthday but he said he could not as he was going to his home to make an investment. I could not imagine what he was talking about but asked him to come the next weekend. He agree he would do that. The next weekend he came out, got down on his knees and proposed. The investment was a diamond ring....
I used to help my Dad drive the cream truck and was with him on December 7, 1941 and one farmer had his radio on in the barn. That is how we learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor. We had to continue the route and Dad was so mad at the farmers...we kept trying to hear more about what was going on and none of them seemed interested. At the time my brother Bob was in the Navy and was in the Pacific somewhere. I remember the day well, sitting around the radio and worrying, Mom and Dad about Bob, which I did also, but I also realized that this meant that Orville would be called back into the Army right away. He was, of course.
Of course, the subject of marriage came up frequently in our conversations. Orville did not have a job at the time so immediate marriage was out of the question. Then, the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, and we knew that Army service was coming up soon. He was called back in and was sent to Chicago to the induction station where he was told he would probably stay for the duration. He and I decided, or rather he decided, it would be a good idea for me to go to business college for a year and get a degree and then we would marry and I would move to Chicago. While I was going to business college in Cedar Rapids I worked for my room and board for a family named Leipold. Just before I was to graduate Orville received orders for overseas. 
Orville and I decided to go ahead with marriage plans and I applied for and received a job at LaPlante Choate on June 3, graduated on June 4, got married on June 6, Orville left for camp again on June 8 and I started my new job on June 9. By this time he had been sent to Camp McCoy in Wisconsin. We had a few weekends together before he left for overseas. When I got letters, (or V-mail as they were called) the first thing I did was check to see who censored the letter, it was usually a Lt. Jancik or Lt. Smith. One day I got a letter and it was censored by Lt. Eckberg. I was sure he was going to get in trouble for signing a letter like that until I read the letter and found he had been given a direct commission. He had not told me he was being considered for one.
Orville wanted me to go to college while he was gone so I enrolled in Wheaton College in 1942. I enjoyed my courses very much but the atmosphere was different than any I had ever been in. It was truly a Baptist College though without that designation. I mostly took courses I would enjoy and enjoyed several Bible courses and a Home Ec. course. It was a very good year and at the end of it I enrolled for a second year. I returned to Cedar Rapids to take a job at LaPlante Choate for the summer. In August I had a letter from Orville telling me he would not be able to write for a while but not to worry about him. One morning while at work my mother called me to say that Orville had not been able to reach me on the phone but had called to say that he was in New York and I was to meet him in Chicago in two days. I quit my job immediately in order to shop for a new dress to wear and then went to the hotel in Chicago where I was to meet him and waited, as he had no idea what time he would arrive. While I was waiting some college friends called from the lobby to see if he had arrived. I told them "no," and time was really dragging so they said they would come up to visit awhile. When a knock came at the door I assumed it was them and opened the door and it was Orville! He left his bags outside the door and came in and closed the door. After awhile I remember my friends who were on their way up and we started waiting for them, not remembering that he had left his bags outside the door when he first came in. Of course, they had seen the bags and went quietly away.
Orville had 60 days terminal leave which was spent visit family and friends and when it was over he was sent to Tullahoma, Tennessee for duty. Orville could only find a motel for me to stay in but I was determined to spend Christmas with him. Just before I left my mother had been sick with the flu and I had gone home to take care of her and left just a few days before Christmas for Tennessee. I knew I probably had the flu but was going anyway. When I arrived I had to wait in an office with a couple of doctors who asked if I had had my flu shot as a lot of it was going around. I just said "no." The next day I felt worse and the day after that again worse and could not even go out to eat and it was really rainy and cold. Poor Orville walked to the nearest restaurant and brought back food and coffee, which of course was cold by the time he returned. The next day when he had to go to work he wanted me to go with him to the E.R. at the hospital. I refused. Shortly after he left he returned and said there was an ambulance outside waiting to take me to the hospital and I had my choice of getting dressed and walking out to it or they would come in and carry me out on a litter. Of course, I got up and dressed, was checked out by a doctor and admitted to the hospital. On Christmas Day Orville's commanding officer and his wife visited the hospital. It was not exactly the way I had planned the day. After I got out of the hospital I found an apartment on the second floor of a house owned by the town's banker. We had three rooms, not connected, but on one side of the hallway, the bath was on the other side of the hall as well as other bedrooms which would be used by members of their family as they came to visit. Their name was Hitt and since Mrs. Hitt was rather lonely, she often would come to the foot of the stairs and call to me and visit. Soon after we started living there I became pregnant with David and one morning she called me to the stairs. The odor coming up the step was terrible and I was wondering what it was when she said "I'm cooking Daddy some brains." If I felt sick before, that did it. I excused myself very quickly.
