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Louie
And Louise
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The Fifties
Betty leans against the Bishop family car, a black 1948 Chevy coupe with a very fashionable visor. Marge's brother Bruce remembered years later: "Your Dad had an order in for that car for over a year, but was still on the waiting list. He had an old Buick and he spent a lot of money fixing it up. Then the dealer called him to say his new car was in and he had 48 hours to pick it up. Even though he worked at the bank he knew he couldn't get a cash loan that quickly. That meant that the dealer could sell it at a higher price if Bob couldn't make it in time. Fortunately I had just gotten out of the army and had two years savings at hand. Bob called and in a couple of hours we met and picked up his new car. He was all banker and insisted on giving me a notarized note. He paid me back in a week or so but in lieu of interest he let me borrow the car to go to Champaign with my former wife to see a football game and locate an apartment for after we got wed. I was really honored driving a new car at that time, car sales were backlogged since there was no production for over five years during the war and retooling the factories."
Tom remembers the day, a couple of years later, when Bob removed the visor from the car. Shortly after this picture was taken, Bob traveled with Marge’s brother Ted to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to consider a move to the rapidly growing Pikes Peak region.
Marge with Betty, Laura, and a different car, probably outside the Barnes residence, also in Chicago.
In the summer of 1952, after the Bishops relocated, Louie and Louise traveled to Colorado to join the growing family for the melodrama at the Imperial Hotel in Cripple Creek. Marge helps Tom with his paper mustache while she holds infant Robert, Jr., in her lap.
The Bishops spent several summer vacations returning to Chicago to visit Louie and Louise. It was here that Betty, seen helping young Robert stand, befriended a squirrel named Nutsy. "He was known to us because he had just half a tail and lived in a big elm tree in the front yard of their house. He became our summer friend on our visits. I used to lure him from the tree with nuts stolen from Grandma’s pantry. One day, I lured him into the foyer, where he promptly panicked, and began to run circles from floor to ceiling. Grandma, who didn't like animals, opened the door to the foyer and screamed. Somehow we got him out, but Grandma didn't let me steal nuts from the pantry after that.”
In the summer of 1955, Louie and the Bishops visited Teresa Padbury for the last time at her home near Chicago. Note that Teresa, who was in her 90s, has lost her teeth. Louie was 5 feet 4 inches tall; his mother was considerably under five feet tall here.
Louise standing outside the Poltevecque home in South Chicago. Note her crutches at her feet. Even though she used crutches for decades, this is the only photo we have of her crutches.
Louis and Louise in formal portraits taken in Chicago in 1959.