So that was, it was very tough. They had classes outside from then on. So I came home, and then I went back and started following him. We couldn’t see each other. We could see each other once a week for a while there, and then he was shipped out. I was working at the PX on the base, my first experience doing that. Luckily, I had worked all my life. I’d worked at the lead shoe store as a cashier and all that so I’d been involved with that kind of thing. And I saw his train pull out. They were heading for Miami because he was going to Officer Candidate School.

So then I got on the train. I didn’t even know there was a difference between Miami and Miami Beach. I thought the beach was the beach of Miami. And they’re two cities. So we made the arrangement that I would—he’d leave a message—I could get through to him by calling for a message at the lowest YMCA listed in the book. (Laughs.) Then we got together for Thanksgiving dinner, and he had to eat a square meal. You know, like that. That was funny. So then I followed him from then on.

Louis never actually shipped out during the war. Oh God, we were so lucky. Because he had done so much work with the YMCA, and had organized little clubs—you know, we had neighborhood clubs—and every kind of sport activity you can imagine, he was put into that job. So he organized all of the activities. You know the athletic activities for all the guys. And that kept him on the side. We were in Florida and we just had a great life.

I was in Florida until the end of the war. Oh boy, I can remember that so well. That day when Japan gave up. I was thinking that the other day, because there were several things in the paper about it. The dates and everything. And I could remember, yeah. Louie was unimpressed. He was busy with a sports activity. Boy, I was impressed, because I thought, “We made it.” So he came back and immediately he had his plans. We had been talking and I was not used to a person who planned things. In my family things just happened, it seemed to me. At least I had never been involved with it. And so he came back and he taught a third grade class. Had never been in a classroom as a teacher, but they were hiring anybody that was alive and had a heartbeat who would be willing to teach. So he taught that class and then he was head of the outpost branch of the YMCA, and he was taking five units at the University of Southern California. And we made it work.