In the summer of 1968, Steve Nicewanger was getting ready for his last semester at Arlington high school. His dad got him a summer job at Service Engraving downtown (his Dad had worked 3rd shift there as a photoengraver for years). This is where he met someone who would change his life forever. That someone was me. I had worked in the Masking Room at Service for a couple years, so I was the boss, so to speak.
I got my little sister a job there and later my little brother. I got my best friend from Herron Art School a job there too. She was from Tokyo, Japan and had come all the way here to go to a small college in the middle of the U.S. That summer she had arranged to go work in a pea factory in Sweden with other international students so that’s why we needed an extra employee. We prepared artwork (illustrations) that came in from the department stores (Ayres, Blocks, Wassons, etc) to be used in newspaper ads in the Star News. We were located on north Delaware just down from the Wheeler Mission — in fact I could see the bunk beds from our second story office window.
The job was in the art department and really the only skill needed was a steady hand and the ability to use a swivel headed Exacto knife (like cutting a stencil). Steve quickly learned the job and we all got along fine. He was 10 months younger than me and I was going into my sophomore year at Herron, so when he wanted to go out with me I tried to pawn him off on my little sister, but with no luck.
Finally I gave in and our first date was a football game at Purdue. Friends of his family drove us there and we enjoyed the afternoon. I don’t like football — don’t mind basketball or baseball games, but I am not a sports fan.
That fall my Japanese friend and I volunteered to do stage design for Civic Theatre, which back then was at Alabama & 18th Street — Footlight Musicals now (just a couple blocks from Herron). We got free tickets for the show and Miki talked me into asking Steve to go as my date. The play was “Rape of the Belt” a comedy based in Greek mythology. I have never seen another production of that play or ever heard of it since.
Well, Steve and I started dating kind of regular, mostly going to movies. Our first movie together was Bullitt with Steve McQueen. Later I found out he had taken a couple other girls to see Romeo & Juliet when we went to see it. We were on again, off again for awhile and I’m not sure when it was on for good.
I do remember going to a couple concerts; Three Dog Night at Clowes and 5th Dimension at University of Cincinnati, where my sister was going to school. We did like live theatre and saw several shows at Starlight Musicals (like Rock Hudson in Camelot) and saw Hair at the Circle Theatre in 1969.
Steve bought me very nice gifts. Our first Christmas I got a cameo necklace and a green velvet dress (I loved it and it fit well — and I still have it!).
The next Christmas I did an oil painting of Steve as his favorite Bears football player — Gale Sayers — he loved it!
Steve and I went to an average of 5 movies a week. In the summer we would take his little sister Robin to the drive-in. She was only 7 when I first met her (she just turned 60).
After Steve graduated from high school the Vietnam War was in full bloom with a lottery to determine when you would get drafted. His number was, I think, 153. Meanwhile his Dad got him an apprenticeship as a photoengraver. His Dad had been president of the Union so you literally had to be born into the trade. Steve was glad to get the job, because it gave him a work deferment and kept him out of Vietnam.
Steve never actually proposed to me — it was just a given that we would be married once he turned 21. We got engaged in November of 1970 and bought the most beautiful wedding rings at Shane Jewelers downtown. I graduated from Herron in June 1971 with an art teaching degree and was waiting on getting an assignment and Steve had just been laid off from his photoengraving job (he was only paid $40 a week) and we had a wedding set for August 14, 1971. Even with no jobs, we weren’t going to let that stop us from getting married.
I remember waiting for the July EOM (End of the Month) Sale at Ayres to buy my wedding dress. I remember his mother being upset that I was waiting until 2 weeks before the wedding in hopes of finding a deal on a dress. I had full confidence that I would find one. Every workday, Miki and I would walk over to the drugstore to buy a newspaper for our boss and candy bars for ourselves (this was our break before working into the evening). During that break I hurried over to Ayres and went to the floor with the wedding dresses and in a matter of minutes found the perfect dress for $39 (originally $250). My dress looked like Tricia Nixon’s dress who married that same year. My sister and I made the bridesmaid dresses and flower girl dress (Steve’s 9 year old sister who was about as tall as me).
Steve wore a tux with a white jacket and black pants. During the ceremony the minister had us kneel at the altar and Steve’s pants ribbed right up the back (luckily no one saw — he was so thin). Back then you just had cake, nuts, mints and punch in the church gathering room. We got married at Lawrence United Methodist Church by Rev. Dr. Copper (great minister). Both our parents had parties at their own houses for all the out-of-town relatives. We had to go to both parties.
That night we were supposed to drive to Spring Mill Park in southern Indiana for our honeymoon. We stopped for dinner at the Hong Kong Inn and then just a few miles out decided to go back to the townhouse apartment we had rented instead. Steve had caught a terrible cold and during the wedding was slap happy on cold meds.
I remember the next day we went shopping for all the things you don’t get as wedding gifts like a mop and bucket, dish drainer, etc. We spent $27 and I remember thinking it’s going to be expensive setting up housekeeping. We both had lived at home with our parents until the wedding.
Luckily Steve’s Mom gave us a sofa that she’d had since the 50s and she had reuphostered in a striped fabric (it has held up for another 50 years in our den). We had an old school desk as an end table and we did buy a coffee table with distressed wood top and metal brackets underneath — our son has it in his house now (our daughter has the old school desk). Steve’s folks had moved into the Little Flower neighborhood the spring before and had a 1920s dining room table, chairs and buffet that came with the house. They didn’t need it, so that became our dining room and still is to this day. We hung beaded curtains to divide the dining from living room. Our one big purchase was a brass bed from Kittles with a queen size mattress which was not that common back then. We got 7 sets of sheets as wedding gifts (yes I still have a couple of those sets after 50 years). One set of sheets was a brown basketweave pattern and I used for curtains in our townhouse. I decorated with a big bouquet of dried weeds from the swamp our apartment faced (cattails, Queen Anne’s lace, etc.)
I got a job two weeks before school started at 2 grade schools (#1 & #3). Steve got a job at Woolco (21st & Shadeland) in the Jewelry department. His boss was not an honest man and at Christmas gave him a sapphire ring to give me instead of his commission. Steve soon quit and went to work in the carpet department at Woolco up on Keystone.
Next time: Young Married couple and tragedy
