During World War II Bloomington was host to the many men serving with the Army and Air Force who were stationed at nearby Camp Ellis or Chanute Air Field. The bars of Bloomington were a popular gathering place for the men and the women they sought out for company.
One couple who met in Bloomington in 1944 left behind a large box of letters that testify to their love and experiences. He was a munitions specialist and later a refrigeration specialist from New York, and she was a bartender who lived with her mother and sister in an apartment on Front Street, just blocks from the bars where she worked. Before reading these letters, my concept of life and romance during the war years came from the movies. The women were bouncy and high spirited. They loved a boy from high school and wore cardigans over their shoulders. They were pure and innocent. The men were noble and heroic. The women rolled bandages or served tea at the USO.
The story of Tina and Stanley, as I will call them, put paid to that romantic vision. Tina was a bartender. She loved to drink to excess. She had a sweetheart who had already left for the war when she met Stanley. Stanley ordered a rye at the bar and Tina served him up a shot of rum by mistake. That was their "meet cute" story.
Tina and Stanley started dating when he was at Camp Ellis. For a short time he was based in Bloomington at the refrigeration training site and there were no letters for a month or so. Then he was quartered back in Camp Ellis again and the letters resumed. Stanley fell hard for Tina. He took the train from Camp Ellis every time he had the opportunity. He asked her to marry him in his letters, or apologized for tormenting her with his pleas while he was with her in Bloomington. Finally, Tina gave in and they were married just weeks before he was shipped to England.
Stanley wrote about the cramped voyage to England, and Tina reported on activities at the bar. They mused about the little baby they might have created. He finally reached England, but could never reveal where the hospital he was based at was located. He was there to look after the refrigeration units, but frequently complained about the lack of tools to keep up the equipment. Sometimes he was assigned to guard over German prisoners at the hospital. Tina reported the sad news that there was no little baby. Stanley worried about Tina, who had a nervous complaint for which she was seeing the doctor. She worked long hours at the bar and was frequently tired. Tina frequently considered quitting the bar, and Stanley urged her to do so, but Tina was determined to save money so they could buy a home when he returned.
Tina socialized with her colleagues at the bar, her sisters and other friends. She travelled to Peoria for a good time with a married woman friend and the friend's date, never considering that Stanley would feel threatened by this story of casual infidelity. Peoria was a place people visited for all the wrong reasons. Stanley wrote an angry letter when he learned of the outing with the cheating couple, which Tina destroyed. Stanley apologized again and again for writing the angry letter. Tina confessed, after a few months, that she had never told her sweetheart that she was married now, and that she had continued writing to him. Stanley was now the "other man!" Stanley's reply must have been destroyed.
Tina told Stanley about the same woman, who after having an affair while her husband was overseas, travelled to Peoria to get rid of the baby that would betray her infidelity. Tina didn't consider that this was not news that would comfort Stanley, and if Stanley complained, she didn't keep the letter. Another letter told of another woman who made the same, sad trip to Peoria so that her husband wouldn't know she had been untrue.
Stanley wrote of washing his clothes in water he heated over a stove and cold showers everyday. He asked for more photos of Tina, so he could look at her new hair do. Tina made excuse after excuse for not obtaining a camera or film in order to send a photo. He wrote disapprovingly of men who were visiting prostitutes in England and the frequency of venereal disease in the camp. He had a bicycle he had put together from miscellaneous parts, until another soldier borrowed it and wrecked it. He found a man who would make a ring for Tina from a pound coin.
When Stanley's father was desperately ill, he wrote letter after letter seeking an early discharge so he could be home with his father. Stanley and Tina were desperate to be together and would use any excuse to be together sooner. Stanley argued with his sister, who did not send the documentation he needed. She questioned his motivations and like many people at the time, hated the idea of him shirking his duty. Stanley's father died while he was overseas.
Stanley sometimes had a radio in his room and would write to Tina about the songs he heard. He even quoted Shakespeare to her. Tina wrote about the movies she saw with her mother or friends. She wrote about going to the Green Mill for a "fat, juicy steak." Stanley was assigned suicide watch over a young soldier who had received a Dear John letter from his wife, who was pregnant with another man's child. He wrestled the young man down until they could sedate him.
Stanley was in England when the war finally ended in Europe. For weeks he feared being sent to the Pacific, but the bomb was dropped in Japan before he received any orders.
Of course there were no letters after Stanley returned. Stanley and Tina were never separated again as far as we know. They lived in Bloomington the rest of their lives. They were never parents, but Tina had a brothers and sisters who lived nearby and a supply of nieces and nephews.