| James McNitt's text |
Bill McNitt's annotations |
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Back with Peggy at her parents' house, I found our reactions strained and
unnatural. There seemed to be nothing left of what once had existed. I had
gone back thinking that perhaps we could pick up the pieces, but when she
asked me that night if I thought it would work out, I had to say honestly
that I didn't believe so. She agreed to a quiet, uncontested divorce. It was
not until this agreement that I admitted under questioning that there was
someone else. I was to learn later that she had been seeing other men, but
by then it didn't really matter.
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The next day I moved back with the aunts. They had never cared much for
Peggy, but had taken pains not to make an issue of it. That afternoon I
wrote and posted a letter to Lilian, apprising her of the situation, and
asking her to marry me. By return mail she accepted. Now began the long
wait.
Dad writing a letter at 107 Logan SE, Grand
Rapids
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Cecile made an appointment with the law firm for which she worked, and they
worked out the details of the divorce. Since it was uncontested, and there
were no children, it was a simple matter. I had to get on the witness stand
in court, answer a few leading questions, and it was over.
Divorce decree - images above or PDF
version
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Cecile was his brother Glenn's wife.
The divorce decree was signed on June 7, 1946.
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I went back to work at my old job. A married lady was let go, and
Marshall Pettie transferred to another job. I once said kiddingly that
it had taken two people to replace me, and Marsh had answered huffily
that there was a lot more work. They had had to deal with ration
coupons, admittedly.
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Lilian made initial application for admittance to the United States, and
found there was a good deal of red tape involved. For one thing, she had to
get an affidavit from me that she would not become a public charge. She had
to qualify under the British quota, but this presented no problem, as it was
never filled.
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Before she left Paris to return home, she took a trip with a friend named
Margaret to the south of France as well as Monaco.
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Mom in Monte Carlo, Monaco
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Mom and friend Margaret outside the Red Cross at
Nice, France
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Mom on the beach at Cannes, France
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Mom and Margaret at Nice, France
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Mom and Margaret at Cannes, France
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Mom and friends on the beach at Nice, France
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When she found that it was going to take months to make arrangements, she
took a job at Taskers of
Andover, a large factory.
Lilian Harvey (known as Ethel in England) with her family in April
1947, just before she left for the United States:
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Lilian with her mother Eva and sisters Mary (known as "Jim") and Hyacinth
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Hy with unidentified child, Eva, and Lilian with
Eva's brother Will, his wife Myra, and daughter Joan
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Jim, Hy, and Lilian
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The original idea was that we would stay with the aunts temporarily
after her arrival. I had bought a maple bedroom outfit for their
downstairs bedroom. In the meantime, Texaco had bought out the
Muskegon Petroleum Company, a Texaco distributor. They had opened a
waterfront terminal in Holland with the idea of delivering to all
outlets within a 75-mile area. They asked me to move to Muskegon to
handle the closing of the small distributor plant there and the setup
for direct delivery.
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This bedroom set remained at 107 Logan
Street until the house was sold in the 1960s. We then moved
it to our house in Holland, where my sister Pat used it. When
my parents sold that house, Marilyn and I moved the bedroom set to our
home in Ann Arbor and it became Sarah's. It has accompanied her to Oxford, Ohio
and Iowa City, Iowa, and now (2017) is in the guest room of her home near
Ypsilanti, Michigan. |
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All the employees of the Muskegon Petroleum Company came over to Texaco on
the deal, John Stevens as area manager from his former position of
president; John Kingshott as warehouseman, the Scharmer brothers, Al and
Pep, and a younger driver, Bill Bradford. Larger gasoline storage was being
installed at the service stations in preparation for direct delivery from
Holland. In the meantime, we had to continue deliveries to all existing
accounts, as well as oil deliveries to industrial accounts such as
Continental Motors. Business methods of distributors are sometimes at
variance with those of a large corporation, and I had to be diplomatic with
these people, particularly with John Stevens. It was understood that John
intended to resign after a year to take on a distributorship wherever
available.
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I moved to the downtown Y.M.C.A. in Muskegon and started looking around for
a place to rent. While eating one evening at the cafeteria across from the
Y, I struck up a conversation with a girl whose British accent I noted. It
would develop into a lifelong friendship between us and Lettie Pierce and
her husband, Glenn.
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The Y.M.C.A. was located at 297 Clay Street
(the corner of West Clay and Second streets). |
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In the meantime I had sent Lilian an engagement ring, buried in the center
of a fruit cake in a package of foodstuffs. It seemed on reflection a crazy
thing to do, but the ring arrived all right.
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I had never learned to drive, so now Bill Bradford undertook the job.
In the company pickup truck I gradually picked up the mechanics of
driving. To qualify for a license, I drove a policeman from the bulk
plant to the police station and parked the car.
Dad getting into a car at the Texaco plant in Muskegon
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