We were living on Monroe Street with four children and with a landlady downstairs who didn’t like us very much. So we were always looking for a house to buy, but we never had enough for the down payment. And nobody’d rent to us. We’d find places for rent, but nobody’d rent to you with four kids.
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Another time we went out to Hinsdale to see a place for $1,500 down. It was up on a hill. It was five rooms if you pulled a divider between a room and made two bedrooms out of it. My mother was going to be with us. It had a little sunroom off the living room, and we could make that a bedroom for her. It had a door you could close. It was just a little place, but at least she’d have her own room. The kids could have the two bedrooms with the divider, and then there was one other bedroom.
One day I see an ad in the paper. A six-room house for rent–basement, attic. So I call up. I said, “Well, I have six children.” This guy says, “That’s OK.”
The man came, and he sat down and told me some more about the house. I remember one of the things he said–he said when you ring the doorbell the chimes ring in the house. Of course I was just thrilled at this idea that we’d be getting out of this apartment.
I said, “What’s wrong? You don’t believe it?”
My sister Marge was baby-sitting for us. When we came home, she says, “Oh, you had a call from the police station.” They wanted us to call when we came in. So Vince calls, and they say, “We have a man here who’s been renting a house in Wheaton. He was at your house, and you gave him a $10 deposit.”
Vince thought I was pretty sharp that I’d only given him $10. A lot of people had given him much more.
