Ep 7: Art & Laura's Story

This episode highlights beautiful examples of family love, as we interview Art and Laura, a father and daughter duo who live together at Village on the Square. Laura thought that staying with her dad would be a temporary situation, but now she says she enjoyed Three Pillars so much that she "forgot to leave!" Art also shares an endearing story of love and hope as he recalls how he met his late wife. With heartwarming stories and plenty of laughs, this is an episode you don’t want to miss! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey, it's Kelsey. Thanks for tuning in to Life's Just Getting Started, a Three Pillars podcast about all things three pillars. Make sure you stay up to date with all our fun activities by following us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Welcome to Life's Just Getting Started, a Three Pillars podcast about all things three pillars. I'm Kelsey.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

And I'm Josh, and we have two special guests today, Art and Laura. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Welcome.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Thank you. What's really all our guests are special. What's really special about Art and Laura is their family. Their father daughter. And you two share an apartment.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

We do.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

What a cool story. We want to know all about you. We want to know about your your time at Three Pillars, but start with just about you. Art, will you tell us about you and your family, and then Laura will do the same thing?

SPEAKER_00 0:59

My family. Four grandchildren. Three great-great grandchildren. They are the world to me. My children have grown up to be fine people. Good parents. Our grandchildren have done the same thing. They're to me the greatest part of my life. I love them all.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

How blessed are you?

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Oh yes, I was blessed. I was blessed today I met my wife.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

How'd you guys meet?

SPEAKER_00 1:45

We met at the Eagles. I don't know if any of you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

Yeah, Eagles Ballroom.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Well, the Eagles Ballroom in our days was the place to be on Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Were you out dancing?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Pardon?

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Out dancing?

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Oh yeah. Oh. They had the big dance floor, they had the ball with the sparkling lights on to speak. We had Glenn Miller, we had everybody in those days. It was constant dancing. The stage that the name band played on was a round stage. The stage turned, and the band that was going off played a certain tune, and then there was a band on the other side coming on playing the same time. So it was constant dancing.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Endless music.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

It was constant dancing. You could dance your life away. And that's where I met my wife. I was there with a friend of mine.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Was it your dance moves that caught her eye?

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Pardon?

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Were you dancing? Was it your dance moves you caught Laverne's eye? No. No.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

My friend and I were going to the bar to have a drink.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

That's important.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

My wife and her girlfriend, the woman to become my wife, and her girlfriend were sitting on a bench on the wall. Well, Ernie, who is the friend, stopped and asked my wife's girlfriend to dance, and she said yes. So there I was standing. So what am I gonna do? Ask this lady to dance with me. So we danced. And we she talked. I don't do much talking. In fact, she uh told me when she said you don't talk very much. So we danced and that was the end of the bar room because we were with them the rest of the night.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Destiny.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

A wonderful destiny. Well everything ended up in ready to go home. Ernie asked the girls if we could take them home. First thing out of my wife's mouth was, Do you have a car? So I thought to myself, well, that's the end of the thing. We don't have a car. So Ernie said, No, we don't have a car. My wife said, Well, then you can take us home. Elmer, my father-in-law, had a rule. The Vern was not to go with anybody in a car.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Well, thank goodness you didn't have a car.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

So we walked from the Eagles to 27th Street. I think we caught a streetcar at that time, because they were they were changing over, but they didn't change everything over it. And took the streetcar to center, and then she lived on 24th in the center. So we went and I walked her home and walked up on her. She had a small porch and only sat on the railing. And we were doing a little talking. And her brother came. Her brother came home and we I got introduced on the fly. He said hi and he was gone. So but we were there for a little while and I slipped off of the railing. Grab her, put her in my arms around her and kissed her.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

You went for it, Art.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

I was quiet. That doesn't mean I was slow. So I kissed her, and after I kissed her, she asked, she said to me, she said, She said, I thought you said you were the quiet type. And he says, I was quiet, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 6:08

Or this might be one of my favorite stories.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Well that was the shortest period of a man not knowing a lady, not knowing a girl, and starting to fall in love with her. After uh I we said goodbye, I realized that I only lived about eight to ten blocks from where she lived.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Good situation for a guy without a car.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Yeah, yeah. So I walked home, which seemed over which in those days that district was fairly safe. And well, before I left, I said to her, I asked her if she was gonna be at the Eagles next week, and she says, no, she wouldn't be there because their parents and her were going up to a lake cottage. So I says, well, and and I was in the process of getting a car. My father gave my brother his Chevy, and my brother got a different car, so I was getting that car. But uh they wouldn't let me get it until they got insurance. And insurance for those days for young men was very hard to go. You had to go into pools. So and that was coming through, so I I said to her, Where is it? And then she said, uh, forget the lake now. And I said, Well, that's not too far away. I said, I don't know, I'm gonna have a car. He said, I'll drive up there. She says, You won't drive up there. She says, My dad'll throw you out. He don't know you and you don't really know us, so she more or less, stay home. So I waited the two weeks to meet her, and I was looking for her on the couldn't find her. And she was fine dancing with a guy that was about he was six foot or more, but he looked like about seven foot, because she was small, so it was just a difference. So it's the dancing stopped, and I walked up to her and I said, I've been looking for you. And I said, uh, pardon us, and we walked away from that guy. And sixty-six years later, and we spent the day together, the night together, and that's when our life together started.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

Did he marry the friend by chance?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

No, no, no, she married somebody else. Oh kind of tall guy. In fact, I don't think uh I don't believe Ernie ever went with that girl again. And I don't even know if that girl went to the Eagles anymore because she'd be going alone.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

Well, thank you for sharing that must have been a popular spot. Actually, when Natalie Grimms met there too at the Eagles, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

A lot of matchmaking at the Eagles. And thanks to Ernie, good thing he had his eye on Laverne's friend, huh? Will will you fast forward in your story to when Laura came along? How'd she come into the picture?

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Uh she was born, I think when we were living on 23rd Street. Yeah, 23rd in Vienna.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Okay. Baby number one, the eldest.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Yeah, she's number one. Not only in not only as the child, but as the person. Her life and her birth was fairly not too high for Mother and the age. We had a school right across the street from us. Great school.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

In Franklin? Oh. Yeah. We were right on the corner. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

The house was owned by an old m minister who was very high in age. He lived upstairs, and his son-in-law handled all the details of surrendering the place. The first time I met the minister and he uh told me, he says, you know, he says there's a rec room downstairs. I says, Yeah, I know, says it needs a little repair. He says, well, he says, I'll tell you, from your living quarters to the basement is all yours. We never go there. So the rec room is yours, everything else, you do what you want with it. I put some repairs into the rec room and we used it a couple times. Well, I joined on the Sony Quarter and we had a a group of friends through that and we would have some parties there. It was actually a fairly large lower quarters. Had a large bay window. Was that for Doug that we put the sign up or for you?

SPEAKER_01 11:12

The sign.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Is you married?

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Oh no, that was Mamie. That's a story.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

That was who?

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Mamie.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yeah. Because she always said that.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

No, well, my whatever she says, she's wrong.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Oh, you're trying to- Oh! I see. Okay, yes. That was for me.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

That was for you? Yes. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

They just that was a good one.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Then we won't get off track. Well we do that often.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

He read your mind and you read his and you both agreed. I don't know what was just said.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

We usually end up bringing it in. I belong to the Sonic Order, as I said, and I joined the chapter, and the chapter had a minstrel show. In that minstrel show, at first I was uh a guy who had to do a song. And I cannot sing.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

How'd you get that part art?

SPEAKER_00 12:09

It's terrible.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

You were assigned?

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Well I was Shanghai. That's more of a word. I joined I I joined this group. And the person who did if you knew Suzy had gone. That's about the only way you could get into it if somebody left and I took his spot. So the first meeting that they had, and they were saying that they needed somebody to do the song. If you knew Susie, the director said to me, Art, uh, that's you. I says, not me. I cannot sing. He says, we will teach you how to go um, how to work with the piano player. I says, I cannot sing and I will not. So the director looked at the group and said, Well, who do you fellows think should do it? And everybody stood up and said, art. So I got the part. If you knew Susie. I'm not a singer, I can't sing it. I tried to talk it, and the piano player would be playing. So it went on. It went on at the lodge. My parents were there, my wife's parents were there, her brother, my brother, ever all the relatives were there. So I got up and I started to sing while the piano player was playing. But before you knew it, I was singing the part of the song which was way past what the piano player was singing. So I stopped looked at him, and we got together, and I started again, and I knew that I was dying on that stage. So I turned around, looked at the group, and I said, Go on, sing. I turned around and started singing, and nobody sang a certain day. Nobody moved their lips. So I'm still suffering out there. So I turned around again and I heard the thing coming out. I darn near got on my knees. Turned around, not a sound. I finally got that act over. The show was over. We were in taking our makeup off. And I stood up and I said, I want to thank everybody for letting me die out there. I almost begged you people to sing. And I was mad. So the one guy answered me and said, Art, we were gonna sing. We were gonna help you out. But the director sitting in the front row was because every time I went like this, he went like that. Because it appeared that that act was going over so damn good, and the people were laughing so damn hard, he wouldn't let them sing. So got done, got our makeup off, uh, went back into the lodge where all the people were, and my father-in-law came up to me and he said, Art, he says, that was very good. He says, that must have taken a lot of practice. I said, Elmer, I said, you don't know how hard a practice is. That's one of my segments of my life.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

It shaped you who you are today.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

No, because after that they made me the interlocutor.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Who is the headman? Oh, the man who introduces, who does see, uh, like uh one of the uh I'd be standing and I'd call up Amos, and he'd come up, and I would say to him, Amos, you know you need to draw your shades down at night. He said, because I heard complaints from the people that you were hugging and kissing your wife and all, and everybody could see.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Uh-oh. Amos.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Well, Amos turned to me and said, Mr. Interlocator, that joke is on you. I wasn't even home last night. It's just the type of jokes that you have that were not the always.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

So you got to be the like the announcer instead of the singer.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

The announcer and the person was the who was the straight man for every joke that every every one of the ones coming down would say.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Then they were laughing at you when they're supposed to be laughing at you.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Well, they wouldn't be laughing at me, they'd be laughing at the joke or uh thing. Oh my goodness. And I was the only one that didn't have makeup.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Did you like that?

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Yeah. Uh that wasn't it wasn't that was nothing.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Laura. Did you ever see these shows or were you tiny?

SPEAKER_01 17:32

I was I remember a magic show where they had, you know, those rings. And the magician would I think I won won a bunny that time, didn't I? Yeah, well. Yeah. No, just a nice girl who wouldn't they give me a pride.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Yeah, well I'll I would imagine our chapter always had all kinds of shows going on.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

They did uh and what do if we even fast forward more, Laura, what do you remember or is there a story about your parents deciding to move to easy breezy retirement living at Three Pillars? Where's the connection? Where does it where do you connect to Three Pillars?

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Well, uh he's the Mason. I was in Job's daughters, my daughter was in I mean just went. And um they were in Vegas at the time because it was a place that my mother uh could we were hoping it would help her breathing. And they really enjoyed it out there, you really did out in Vegas.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Oh, yeah, I I never wanted to leave Vegas. I never wanted to come here.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

So you were living in Vegas for a while, the good dry hair.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

I lived in Vegas for thirteen years 13 years.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

And then mom got uh got a little concerned about him and said we need to move home. So they moved here and they came here.

unknown 18:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Were the kids here? We were all here.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Wisconsin, okay. Yeah, we all stayed in Wisconsin and then eventually I mean we moved around like to Minnesota or you know, that type of thing, but we were always in the Midwest. Okay. And um and then he and mom moved in here, and then um mom ended up going into memory care, and when she did, um dad was like, Why don't you come live with me? So I did, and it was only gonna be temporary. They were selling my house and that type of thing. And um then I I forgot to leave. Did you get coffee? I did. I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

I never told her to leave either.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

You loved every minute.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

And you're gonna like being alone.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

I was. I was sure.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

You were here visiting often anyways, and when you had an extra some extra space in the apartment, you've been in your apartment for more than a decade, correct?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah, but I've been here for about 21, 22 years. I came here in oh five.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Okay. Wow. Do you remember it like it was yesterday when you toured your unit and s and you and Laverne said, yep, this one'll work. I like the view, let's do it.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Oh yeah, we uh we came from Vegas and we were looking to think of it. I think the apartment that we took was the only one that showed us. My wife liked it. She liked it because it had the view. It was on the corner, it had a lot of windows, and it had a view of which is now the garden and uh the barchibow. Lots of deer out there. And there used to be a lot of deer used to come out there in the field. They don't come out much anymore. They'd go most of them gone. Yeah. Well, construction and everything else that they move. But you know, and then you see uh a a deer or two.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

And that third floor view from the third floor is pretty nice.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Well, that's that's that's I think I think that's what sold my wife on an apartment to be actually. And uh I can say, and I've always said, other than when my wife passed, I never had a bad day here at Three Pillars. Never. Everybody is good, everybody is the staff, the employees, everybody is just copacetic.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

Well, both of you have had obviously a chance to explore campus in the time that you've been here. Do you have a favorite place on campus? On campus?

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Yeah. Not not really, no. Okay. I used to walk a lot, but I would very seldom. Across the bridge. Okay. And I would very seldom walk through that park because in real hot weather I there's these little nets and they drive you nuts. So I stopped walking across the bridge.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

A boy dodge the gets. Laura, do you have a favorite spot? Indoors, outdoors, anywhere on campus?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

I like my bedroom.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

Good view. Good view?

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Yes. I kind of took over the master. Sent him up to the bedroom. It doesn't look like mine.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

What's a day in the life look like? Are you guys often together? Do you have your coffee together and then do your own thing? Or do you have your kind of routines or is every day different?

SPEAKER_01 22:47

Well, right now we're we're kind of jumbled up because we got rid of the storage unit and brought my stuff in and because I've decided not to stay. It's official? It's official. And uh so we're still kind of negotiating where everything is gonna go. Sure. But um, so basically we'll eat dinner together. Um dad, me, and the TV. And then um as far as otherwise, uh I'm I'm on the go, he's on the go. Yeah, doing your thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Yeah, whatever whatever is natural. Yeah. Sometimes having coffee in the morning, she uh comes and sits and saying, and the only thing that I don't like is it when she comes in, I have to turn the air conditioning on because she loves it very cold.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

He says it's the only place that in this whole complex where you can leave the living room and have another um temperature in the the and so you've got all of these different seasons.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

Oh seasons. And Laura says, Dad, just put on a sweatshirt.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Yeah, no, she she just says, uh, you know it's hot in here.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

And you're allowed to disagree, and that's where it is.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

I automatically know that I gotta push the button for there.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Okay, okay, that's that. You used to drive the shuttle. You used to be the sh a shuttle driver.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

I used I used to drive the shuttle, and I used to drive the van that used to take people to uh outside churches or funerals. Out dancing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Out dancing. Did you ever drive to a fun outing like a music show or anything?

SPEAKER_00 24:40

No, no. I didn't never drove the big bus. It's just uh this was the smaller van and maybe five or six people usually at met much more than that.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

Neat way to neat way to be involved with people and campus.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

Well, they used to like my driving because of the fact that I would always bring tapes along of Roger Whitaker, and they liked Roger Whitaker, and I liked Roger Whitaker. But I would just drive them to like the funeral home on Capitol Drive out there in Waukesha, wherever they did. I used to take a lot of people over to uh the Catholic Church over here. Oh, sure. And stuff like that. And I remember one little lady and she used to go daily over over to see her husband. And one day she said to me, she said, you know, she says, I would like to spend more time with my with my husband. She says, this hour, because that's what it was. A child only ran from one to two. And she says, This hour, she says, is too short. I said, I'll tell you what we'll do. Here's my telephone number, and you stay as long as you want, and then you have them call me, and I will come and get you. And that's what I did with her. Very nice. Lucky her. Yeah, we used to we had a there was I think three of us. All the people that we knew in a third floor, and if I don't know if it went further, knew that if they had to go someplace, all they had to do was ask either one of us and we take them.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

That's really nice. Laura, do you have, would you as we as we wind down, do you have us any special story funny or memorable or anything that stands out to you about life in three pillars, your time here, your parents' time here?

SPEAKER_01 26:51

I thought about that. Nothing that I can tell. So uh but you know, there was there it's just been a good place for them. It really has. And and when I first uh came here, I told him I'm not staying long. Temporary zombie. You know, all these old people when I was like but then I realized I was an old person, so you know, maybe I should stay here. So I did. But um I don't have anything. I mean, I have lots of funny stories, but nothing podcast worthy. Well, it might be worthy, but it's not it's not save.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

Not safe for podcast. All right. Well, we really appreciate you joining us and chatting and telling stories and making us laugh and a tear to the eye and all the things. So thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for tuning in to Life's Just Getting Started, our Three Pillars podcast about all things three pillars. I'm Kelsey.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

I'm Josh.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

And we're gonna sign off.