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Norman Fehrm — my friend from many years back — telephoned me and said “Pleto, I have just met the neatest girl in the world, and I think that she is just right for you.” I had heard all of this malarkey many times before, so I really wasn't too excited, but I thought, “What the heck, another blind date, what can it hurt?” I called, made the date and drove out to 602 Fairview Avenue Park Ridge, Illinois in my flashy new convertible automobile, got out and rang the doorbell. I was greeted by the most beautiful girl that I had ever had the pleasure of dating.
Meeting My Marilyn
It wasn't too long after that I brought Marilyn Hughes home to meet my mother. I truly believed that they really took a liking to each other immediately. All of Marilyn's friends had nicknamed her Hughsie. My mother — still having that very delightful Swedish accent — couldn't quite manage “Hughsie;” it always seemed to come out “Huge-y.” All of her life Marilyn had been very weight conscious. When my mother would introduce Marilyn to her friends it would go something like “This is Roland's friend Marilyn Huge.”
Marilyn and I became engaged. I brought her to Evanston to present her to my sister and my sister’s family. My sister’s mother-in-law, a dyed-in-the-wool Swede, accepted her, I guess, and said “Marilyn, you seem to be such a nice girl; it's too bad that you're not Swedish Lutheran.” That, my friends, is why you will see that phrase sprinkled throughout this story. Marilyn and I were truly in love and I guess that's why all of these little happenings just provided us with laughs in years to come.
Wedding Bells
Marilyn Hughes and I were married in the Community Church in Park Ridge, Illinois on September 10, 1949. The reception was held at 602 S. Fairview Ave., in Park Ridge. Marilyn had a very unfortunate childhood, in that both her mother and father were not available to care for her from the time that she was nine years old. She was raised by her sister and brother-in-law, Stewart and Gwen Nielsen. These two people soon became very very special and important people in the lives of the Roland A. Johnson family. Somewhere along the line, I began to refer to my in-laws as my “Wife's Relatives.” I would like to say here and now that that was said with the very deepest of love and respect!
On September 10, 1949, I not gained only a wife, but a flock of great in-laws. Stew and Gwen Nielsen and their family; Ken and Edythe Johnston, and their family; Harry and Ruth Rockwood, and their family; Lou and Jeanne Hughes and their family. As of this writing, Eydthe Johnston and I are the only two “Parents” of this part of my relatives still living. I might add right here that Edythe and I have dinner together every other Wednesday evening along with three of her children, Barbara Mitchell, Ken Johnston and his wife Shannon, and Susan Douglas and her husband Kelly.
When Marilyn and I were married, we had our honeymoon trip to Daytona Beach, Florida. When we returned my mother gave to us, as a wedding gift a three-and-a-half-room apartment in her building rent free. This was truly a fantastic gift, as apartments were impossible to find. I was expected to manage the building for her, and this I did very willingly.
Making New Friends
Marilyn was secretary to the chief engineer at American Can Company in Chicago and kept her job after our marriage. Along about this time, Warren McNeil — another friend of very long standing — called me and invited me to meet with him and a bunch of his friends that he had gone to school with in Oak Park-River Forest, Illinois. The purpose of this meeting was to form an investment and social club. The “in” thing at that time was for people to get together, pool their money and their knowledge, and invest in the stock market. The original members of this group were Warren McNeil, John McConnachie, Clinton Davis, Jim Mulvany, Art Bitzer, Bill Merchant, Marty Kralovec, Rea Lotts, and me, Charles Roland August Johnson, AKA Pleto. The name of the organization was The Texas Midwestern Combine, a tremendous name. Shirley McConnachie said that it sounded bigger than Standard Oil. We shortened the name to “The Combine.”
“The Combine”
Well anyhow we had our organizational meeting and decided to meet the third Tuesday of every month at Horwath’s Restaurant on Harlem Avenue in Elmwood Park, Illinois. The very first officers elected to serve a one year term were Marty Kralovec, Treasurer, Bill Merchant, Secretary, Jim Mulvany, Vice President and Charles Roland August Johnson AKA Pleto, as President. As time moved on more members were added: George Curl, Don Mellon, John Janowski, Frank Carqueville, and Ed Gits. The Combine became a very special part of each of our families’ lives.
The investments were successful — perhaps too successful — because after awhile we accumulated so much money the social aspect diminished and we began to argue and take sides as to how the funds were to be handled and so forth and so on. After about ten or fifteen years we elected to sell all of our stocks, divide the money and let each person invest privately as he saw fit. Now, some 50 years later, we still meet the third Tuesday of each month at Horwath’s Restaurant purely as a social deal. Unfortunately, many of the members have moved out of the area and either five or six have gone to the “Combine” in the sky.
The Svithiod Club
I had joined the Svithiod Singing Club of Chicago. This was a group of Swedish men who would get together every Friday evening to rehearse Swedish and English songs and then put on one or two concerts each year. This was a great club. The Svithiod Chorus would travel all over the country giving concerts. At one time they traveled to Sweden and Norway to give concerts. While we had many “in house” soloists we were also privileged to have as soloist the Wagnarian tenor Lauritz Melchoir, and Jesse Bjorn to mention a few. The local Chicago concerts were given at such prestigious places as the Chicago opera house and other prominent halls. The concerts were always sold out. The clubhouse was a beautiful place to dine and otherwise enjoy ourselves. We would often entertain many of our friends and relatives by bringing them to the Svithiod Singing Club. Aside from the meetings at Horwvath’s, the Combine and their wives would have many parties of one sort or another during the year.
Combine parties and the various activities at the Svithiod Club comprised most of the social activities of the young couple Marilyn and Roland Johnson.
I might add here that Marilyn and I and my mother would always rent a cottage at Cedar Point Park for the month of August.
End of Section Four: Go to the
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