GIRLFRIENDS

Despite the troubles he had with his father, Steve did find joy in life.  Betty told me that before he met her he had several girlfriends. She described the east end of Fort Dodge as a melting pot, where the Italians, Slovaks and a few Czechs lived. Steve seemed to have a girlfriend from each nationality.  Here is a quote from Betty:

He and his stepmother had a small dairy and that was the days before pasteurized milk was the law, they sold raw milk. So, he would deliver, he was the milkman, he delivered in the morning and then he delivered in the evening and in the summertime he would deliver the milk and he had his little accordion and he and a bunch of young people would gather at Olsen Park and kind of get together and have a good time. From what I understand, that used to be about every evening in the summertime.   They’d go out to the park and horse around. (end of first quote)

Betty also told me about meeting one of Steve’s girlfriends.  She also mentions the Italian girls:

This woman I met said, “So, your name is Miklo? You know Steve?"

"Yeah, he’s my husband."  She said, “Oh, I used to go with him.”

Poor guy.  Oh, shoot.  That was funny.  “I used to go with him.”  I never heard of her, I heard of a lot of others, I never heard about her. I heard about those 2 X 4 Italian girls, wearing those dresses...Oh, God, he had his fun before he met me. (End quote)

Steve had had lots of girlfriends, but he told Betty that she, herself, was his “Sunday Girl.”  

Compare Steve's passport photo that was taken when he was 16 going on 17, to the photo on the right that was taken when he was about 20 years old. He matured and lost his baby fat.