Chicago was cold, windy, and snow was on the ground that December of 1945. A far piece from what I had been used to the last few years. Burma was hot, temperatures often reaching over 100 degrees with a very high humidity. A cool day in Burma was in the mid-80s, and that was at night.
I spent my money on new clothes, shoes, and an overcoat— the first clothes I had paid for in a while. It took a week or two to get used to paying when I finished eating, and for transportation.
Mrs. Raggio had died, and the old boarding house was no more. So I made arrangements to move into an extra room at Chuck Fanning's flat.
Bud Boyt, Don Doty, Chuck and I resumed our friendship and spent most of our time together. We were old enough now, and experienced enough to make the local bars our regular places to be. Bars along 63rd St. had names like Tons of Fun and Bucket of Blood. Our reglar place was Spody's.
[...]
During 1946, I took a GED examination and received my high school diploma. I also enrolled in a medical technology course thinking that I might make that my life's work. I went to school from 4 to 10 p.m. each day while working at Hines Hospital early in the day. My work at Hines was in the morgue, assisting with autopsy examinations. I liked the work, and had no problem with it as it helped me to understand the course I was taking.
On completing the course, another student and I decided to open a laboratory to do routine blood tests, pre-marital tests and sof forth. We rented a couple of rooms in an office building on North Ave. near Western. We pooled our money for some second-hand equipment, and set up shop. Within a month, it was obvious our venture was not going to fly.
We didn't know how to get doctors to refer to us, didn't in fact know a thing about business. We did do a few pre-marital blood tests and probably a dozen tests overall, but it was a bust-out operation. John, my partner, finally bought out my share at a loss to me, and I was out. I never saw John again and don't know what path the lab then took.
[...]
Chuck had introduced me to Dorothy, whose sister, Louise, he had been on one date with. Dorothy and I went on our first date, a moonlight cruise, dinner, and dancing on Lake Michigan. We saw each other every night right from the beginning and got along well.
The streetcar and elevated were our transportaiton. I had no car. Our usual date was a movie, double features, for a quarter each. After the movie, we would stop at Karson's restaurant for pie and coffee or on the street at the hot dog stand to take back and eat sitting on her front steps.
Dot's sister was dating Vertus, but Dot and I seldom went out with them. Vert had a car, a big, 12-cylinder Packard that held about 10 people. Vert and I played a lot of pinochle with Dot's father, Louis. Both Vert and I were in fairly solid with him. We had a lot of parties, usually at somebody's house. Bob and Sunny were dating then, and later married. Dorothy and I became inseparable.
