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During high school I worked for John
Fryback at a confectionery shop called "The Princess". We sold sandwiches, sodas, soup and cokes and
it was a hangout for young kids. Later I worked for Naomi Knoff. She and her husband, Bob, also had a little confectionery
called "Nao-Bobs". It was across the street from the Grand Theater. During Street Fair we were so busy.
We would make big milk cans of chili ahead of time and put them in a cooler. I generally worked the grill and had
a couple dozen hamburgers flipping at the same time. It was fun working in a restaurant.
Everyone is generally happy when they're eating.  I saved enough to go to Florida to find work. It was during the depression and wages were low, so I figured
I could make more down there through their busy season. A friend, Thelma Reiff decided to go with me. We decided
to go to West Palm Beach. My Mother's sister, Aunt Mary Watson, lived there and I thought it would be better to
go  someplace where we knew someone. I had
twenty-seven dollars after I paid my bus fare. Thelma had fifty dollars but had never worked. Her Dad was pretty
wealthy. When we started out we were pretty dumb and inexperienced in traveling. We got to Cincinnati, Ohio, and
had to change buses. When we got out we didn't know that we were responsible for our luggage. Before we got on
the bus we looked back and our luggage was standing on the street where we just came from. We ran back and got
it just in time before our bus took off. We no more than sat down when Thelma opened a bottle of Jergens lotion
and accidentally dropped it on the floor. Real embarrassing but the bus really smelled good. When we got to West
Palm Beach, we went straight to the YWCA and got two beds in a dormitory. We didn't know that the winter season
doesn't start until Christmas time and this was before Thanksgiving, so I got busy looking for a job. I found one
in a little restaurant peeling potatoes and making rolls for six dollars a week and my meals. Thelma didn't find
a job right away but she did meet new friends at the drug store.
The third day we were there, Thelma and I were walking down the street and ran into my Uncle Erb and he said, "Your
going to get it!" My Mother had written to tell them I was coming to West Palm Beach. They were expecting
us and were worried.
By Christmas I had found a job at the Royal Palm Hotel on the shores of Lake Worth for both of us. Thelma would
be an elevator girl and had a real cute uniform. She was a really good-looking girl and made a big hit with everyone.
I got a job as head of the salad department. Lots of the girls were working as waitresses. Some had been schoolteachers
and probably got better wages than when they taught school. Thelma and I had a room together. All of the girls
stayed in the basement of the hotel. It was real nice. We got our meals and rooms besides a wage. Course the others
got the tips. My helper was a black lady named Palm. She was real sweet and we got along great. We would clean
bushels of shrimp together and get everything ready to make our salads. I really enjoyed my job and I liked Palm.
I never had an opportunity to have a black person as a friend before. One day I ask her how she got the scar on
her arm and she said she got it before she was saved. Then she asked me if I was saved. I said no, but I believed
in Jesus and I wanted to be some day. Then she asked me to go to church with her some night. I would have liked
to but I knew that Thelma wouldn't go so I refused. Many years later I me another black lady in Toledo, Ohio, that
happened to go to the same kind of church as Palm went to. It was called "The Church of God in Christ".
I was beginning to get pretty lonesome. This wasn't as wonderful as I thought it would be. God was dealing with
my heart. I would take walks along Lake Worth and began praying which I had neglected to do for some time. Now
I wish I had gone with Palm to church. I wouldn't have wasted so many years of my life but I guess that all things
work together. Many things wouldn't have happened if years later, after I was married and moved back to Florida
(to Miami), my daughter, Mary Lou, hadn't met her husband Tommie Dillard in Haiti. All things do work together
in God's plan to those that love God and are called.
While I was working there my niece, Justine Moser, wrote and ask me to find her a job because she was coming down
with Bill, Em, her Aunt Sadie and Uncle Fred. So I had a job lines up for her in the hotel dining room as a waitress
when she got there. Bills were going to Cuba. They were planning to stay a month or so for a vacation. God was
really working with my heart and I had a desire to go back to Bluffton so Justine and I decided to go back north
when Bills' returned. Thelma had relatives in Fort Lauderdale and wanted to stay, so she went to Lauderdale with
them.
I went to Fort Wayne and got a job at the Twentieth Century restaurant that Phil Clauss owned before he had the
Hobby House and I lived with Ernie and Marie. I worked there during the late thirties when the Ohio River flooded
we would listen to the news about how bad it was down there. Later I read Brother Branham's life story and he lost
his wife and baby daughter at the time of that flood on the Ohio River.
There was an older man that would come into the restaurant and always set at the counter. He always kept watching
me and it made me a little uneasy. Then one day he asks me if I would like to change jobs. He wanted me to work
for him at the Kroger Bakery. It was at the Kroger Wholesale place at the eastern part of town. The wages were
better and I would have Saturday and Sunday off, so I took the job. I really liked working there. We had to work
fast making donuts and icing cakes. There would be five or six girls around a table and we could race icing cakes.
It was more fun than work. I worked there until I got married in nineteen forty. I still keep in touch with one
of the girls that worked at Krogers but we don't know what happened to the others.
After Justine and I got back from Florida, we both decided to join the Apostolic Christian church. We both had
gone to Sunday school there and had many friends. I remember when I was small; I had to wait on my Mother when
they had a church meeting only for members of the church. I would ask her what went on  and she would say "join and find out." Course I found
out that's a little too late if you don't agree with everything. Justine and I joined the church but neither one
of us really had an experience like in Acts 2:4. We were not baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, only
in the title of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It was many years later when I started searching the scriptures that
I  got the revelation of Christian
baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost baptism. We were both married in the church. She married Elmer Hurt and
I married Harold Klopfenstein.
You aren't to date before you marry but they do have people that think they can match make. Lydia and Ben Schlatter
told Harold about me and arranged for Justine and I to come to Toledo to meet Harold. So my Mother, Justine and
I drove to Leo, Indiana. We had asked Dorothea Conrad and Marie Beerie to go with us. Dorothea wanted to drive
her car but when we got to Bryan, Ohio, she had an accident and broke her nose. I called back and ask my Mother
what I should do. She told me when Phil and Thelma came after Dorothea and Marie, that one of them could bring
my car so that Justine and I could go on to Toledo and keep our appointment with the Schlatters, which we did.
We had a nice time and Harold and I were attracted to each other. The next week Harold came to Fort Wayne and looked
me up. We did have an opportunity to talk and exchange opinions, but, of course, we were both on our good behavior
and couldn't really learn much about each other in that short time. In several weeks, my Mother got a letter from
Elder Eli Dotterer telling her that Harold proposed marriage to her daughter and Mother was to write back and give
my answer. Well, I wanted some time to pray and think about this, so I didn't give an answer for a month. It was
more or less considered an insult I learned later. I accepted him in September and we were married November third,
nineteen forty. We were  married
in the old Bluffton church by Elias Dotterer from Junction, Ohio. He was the elder of our church at that time.
Harold's' best man was a cousin from Illinois, Lester Stoller. My maid of honor was Dorothea Conrad. Then we had
our reception dinner at the Reineck farm. My Mother gave us a lovely chicken dinner and my cake was made by a friend
that worked in a bakery in Fort Wayne. It was in the shape of a big Bible. Just beautiful! There were about two
hundred guests. Harold invited nearly all his relatives. We got really lovely gifts. We stayed at Bill and Em's
over night and left on our honeymoon to New Orleans and then on to West Palm Beach.
But all in all, I think Ben and Lydia Schlatter were good matchmakers. We had good times and enjoyed raising our
children. I would say our marriage was better than average.
We had quite a few strikes against us from the beginning. He had a truck line and it was right before World War
II was declared. He didn't have choice drivers and they were continually having accidents and would wake us up
at all hours of the night. I got pregnant the first month I was married. Just a little advice for the first year
of marriage. Be careful what you say for it will be long remembered.
After our wedding we lived in St. Louis, Missouri for six months. He owned a fleet of semi trucks and drove for
Inter State Motor Freight from Toledo, Ohio to St. Louis. We had an apartment and bought new furniture while we were
there.
My mother-in-law gave us a duck to take with us when we left. I had never cooked a duck, so it was a new experience.
Harold's brother, Floren, had come to
visit and help Harold,  so I decided to cook the duck and have a nice supper for them. I told them not to eat out
because I would have a duck supper for them when they came home.
I used every pan I had in preparation for this special meal, so my kitchen was piled high with dirty pots and pans but the meal turned out perfect.
I had everything ready when Harold and Floren walked in. When they saw the table and all the food they looked at
each other with a strange look. I asked them what was wrong. They said they forgot and had already had supper.
I told them to sit down and eat and they did.
Kell, the man that worked with Harold had a bad accident while we were there. Joe and Jinny Philips were with Kell
and Jinny was hurt the worst. She had double vision for a long time. Kell had some woman instead of his wife that
night. This woman was in the same hospital room as Jinny and when Kells' wife would come to see Jinny she didn't
know that the other woman in the room had been with them. I don't know if she ever found out or not. The last Harold
heard of Kell was that he was a Pentecostal preacher down south some place.
Then we moved to Toledo right before World War II was declared. We rented an apartment and used the living room as our office. I got pregnant the first month
I was married. I was twenty-seven and Harold was twenty-nine years old, so we were ready to start a family. Only
the first two months were horrible. I had morning sickness and Harold had a touch of it too. He would tell me to
get over it was his turn. We had a darling nine pound fifteen ounce boy, Harold Sidney Klopfenstein, on September
sixteenth in nineteen forty-one. We had purchased a two-bedroom home on  Grantwood Drive in Toledo, Ohio, and lived there when Sid was born. He was
born at Toledo Hospital.
Those were happy days. We had nice neighbors, Dolly and Harry Ickes. They loved Sidney as their own.
We entertained
when we lived on Grantwood. Harold and Francis were the only ones married at that time so their brothers and sisters
came to visit often.
My Mother helped me during that time; it was right before World War II was declared. We knew
it was going to happen so I ask Marvin, Harold's youngest brother who was in his early teens, if he would have
a garden for me. Harold owned a farm near his folks. Marvin planted a  super big garden for us. Mom and I canned five hundred-quart cans of vegetables
and fruit besides beef, chicken and pork. We kept real busy right up until Sid was born. We never needed ration
stamps and could give ours to others that needed them. Our cupboards were full. I was so pleased that Harold opened
our
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