An excerpt of the love story of Dick and Shirley “Nook” Krietz, as told by their son and granddaughter
When Dick Krietz first spotted Shirley “Nook” Fleming at the Fairfield Shoe Factory, he said he was going to marry her.
In a letter Dick wrote to Nook while they were dating, he shared his true feelings:
“You are the one for me, my darling. My darling Shirley, I love you and hope you love me or at least like me a little. I think I have found true love with you. I intend to be your old man some day or husband as [you] could say. We’ll be happy together if we do get married, just you and me and love and babies make three. Ha ha.
“Nookie dear, marriage is a partnership for life. You have three months to decide. I love you, my darling, with all of my love.”
The couple dated no more than a year before they were married in 1954; both were 18 years old. They soon started their family with the birth of their son, Robert (Bob), in August 1955, then son Ricky in December 1956.
For the first decade of their marriage, the Krietzes didn’t have what many consider essential today. “When we were growing up, we didn’t have a car until I was probably 10,” Bob says. “We didn’t own a car, we didn’t have a phone. If we wanted to make a phone call, we had to go to my Nan’s; they had a phone in their bedroom and we’d have to talk on that there.”
Being self-sufficient was the norm for the family. “We didn’t get stuff out of a store. It was what we raised and what we shot,” explains Bob. “And they were the best times.”
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