ROOM AND BOARD

After several months of dating Steve presented Betty with a diamond ring and asked Ed and Helen for permission to marry their daughter.  They said no because she was too young.  Betty was only 14, while Steve was 22.

Steve and Betty went out to his car. They were sitting there when Ed came out and told them that they had changed their minds and that they would allow Betty to marry Steve.  What caused them to change? As I recall, Betty told me that Helen had talked to Ed and convinced him to consent.  As we know, Helen had not learned English.  It was her plan that because Betty spoke Czech and Steve spoke Slovak, which are very similar and mutually understandable languages, if they married, their children would speak Czech (more on this later).

Steve’s father was not happy about the news.  Steve paid his father room and board. When he told him that he was getting married and moving out of the house, his father was mad because he had just bought a new Oldsmobile on credit and was counting on the rent to help make the payments. Here is how Betty told the story:

Betty:  They (Steve and his stepmother) ran the dairy together.  He was not treated right.  He had to pay a dollar a day in board.  He didn’t get anything from milking them cows and delivering the milk.  He still had to pay a dollar a day board.  And when he told them, “We’re getting married,”  oh, they had a fit.  They depended on the dollar a day board to make the payments on the new car that he bought, that the old man bought.  Well, we got married; we don’t know how they made those damn payments.  (end of quote)

Here is a 1937 Oldsmobile similar to the one Steve Miklo, Sr., bought.