By Jerry
In the summer of 1953, while home on leave in Stony Brook, I went on a blind date with a young girl from upper Manhattan. Ellie was working at Clancy's, better known as "The Woodbox" in Stony Brook village.

I don't recall exactly where we went but it was in the rumble seat of a model A Ford and we were dancing in a bar. In those days they didn't check ID's -- Ellie was only 16.

Ellie was staying at her friend Peggy Simco's home and we ended up coming home late. So Peggy's mother threw Ellie out of the house. With no place to go, and Clancy still needing a waitress, she ended up staying with the Clancys for the rest of the summer.

When my family heard about this girl I dated, the whole Jones family, including Granny, went down to Clancy's to see what she was like. My older brother, Joseph, was into photography at the time and took pictures while the rest of the family checked her out.

During the next year, Ellie and I communicated via mail.

In August 1853, I was released from the Army (after I won the war in Korea). From then on I took the IRT subway every day from Newkirk Ave. station to 225th St. in Manhattan (about a two-hour ride each way).

Around Thanksgiving we became engaged and subsequently married in 1954.

Ellie, working in the Woodbox