MyLife - Skip Stein
My Autobiography
Karen Ann Oatley

My First Girlfriend and Love of My Early Life.


As I was delivering my papers one day, yes, she lived on my route. I met this cute girl with a dirty face dressed in a cowboy suite with two guns on her hips.  Brownish blond hair, beautiful blue eyes and very pretty.

That was the beginning of a long romance of which I had no idea at the time.  As she told me later, she liked me from the start.  I thought of her as just a kid who was just three years younger than I was. Remember, I began to like her while in I was in the seventh grade at St. Francis Xavier School. 

Because of the opinion of other people, I didn’t want to appear to be too friendly to Karen because she was still considered too young.

During the summer, I saw quite a bit of Karen at the city recreation building. We played chess and cards quite a bit – we did not appear serious.  At night I would go to the softball games to see her and we would go to the drugstore after the game.  We were becoming closer friends.  I liked her and she liked me.

It was cool because Karen’s older sister Pat, worked the soda fountain in the local drug store.  At the front window there was a magazine rack that had comic books and I would sit there for hours nursing a cherry coke and carefully reading Superman Comics.  As long as I didn’t mess them up, Pat let me read them for free.  I was a Superman addict and later Green Lantern too!

Towards the end of the summer, Karen and I were seeing quite a bit of each other.  We would meet at the show and sit together very often.  One day, in the show Karen and I were sitting together very comfortably.  On a sudden impulse I kissed her just once.  It was wonderful.  She was the first girl I had ever kissed.  That was a monumental moment in my life, as it must be for every young boy.

I had a ring with an aquamarine birthstone my parents gave me when I turned 12.  Well, I gave that to Karen and we were going ‘steady’.  She wore it every day.  I would often walk to the drugstore not far from our home and sit and have a ‘cherry coke’ made by Karen’s older sister, Pat, who worked the soda fountain counter.  Next to it was the comic book rack and I’d sit and read some of the comic books (mostly Superman and Green Lantern) just paying for the cherry coke.

There was a ‘pay phone’ booth on the corner on the way to the drug store. I’d often stop and pay 10 cents to call Karen; as our home phone was in too public a location.  I learned a trick to make free calls.  If you dropped the dime just right and hit the coin-return button with the heel of your palm, you could get a dial tone and dime back.  It worked about 65% of the time.  I’d stand and talk to Karen before returning home for the night.


Like I said, I grew up 'downriver' of Detroit Michigan in Ecorse; right on the Detroit River. When it got time for High school, my dad had me take an entrance exam for his Alma Mater, University of Detroit. They had a High School associated that was staffed by Jesuit Professors. I got in as did one of my friends, Jimmy Monte.

(Jim, it turned out, later became a Urologist/Oncologist and educator; very prominent.  I contacted him before starting this project to see how he was doing.  Hadn’t talked to him since high-school.  Well, turns out he was doing well but when I told him of my prostate cancer issue and how I refused all treatment but managed to ‘beat it naturally’, he never called me back again or returned my emails.  That happens a lot with traditional medical doctors).

The trouble was that the school was about 18 miles away.  Each morning my Dad would drive Jimmy and me to a bus stop in River Rouge (about 8 miles) where we picked up a city bus for the ride to 7-Mile Road (about 12 miles); then we walked to the school about ½ mile; not bad really.

Each afternoon, Jim's brother would pick us up at the bus stop and take us home. I'd get home in time to rush to the paper station and pick up the evening edition, peddle my bike (on the non-snowy days) and make it back home in time for dinner.

That school was TOUGH and the Jesuits were tougher still. Remember they were college professors in their regular jobs for the most part. The demands were high and it took a lot of homework just to make decent grades. But I really Learned How to Learn!  And that may have been the most valuable thing I did learn.

Summer returned and vacation time from U of D was beginning.  I had continued to see Karen every weekend all that time. We soon were close; closer than ever before.  She liked me and I loved her.  It continued on like this for quite a while.  We had our fights but we always kissed and made up.

By this time school was started again and I was back at U of D as a sophomore.  After finishing my homework, I would go to the drugstore most every night to talk to Pat who had become a very close friend.  I would often meet Karen there and walk her home up to the back door and kiss her goodnight, sometimes once but never more than three times.

As Autumn approached, U of D was having a big semi-formal.  I asked Karen to go and she said yes.  We had a good time there and went to Joe’s Stables to eat.  (With my parents who had been chaperones at the dance).  Karen wore a pretty blue dress that matched her eyes and we had a grand time.

Winter approached and with it the ice rink opened.  I always had a good time with at the ice rink.  I was really in love with Karen.  I went skating as often as I could, not only because Karen was there most every night but also because I loved to skate.  Karen and I would have a wonderful time skating together under the twinkling stars with the snow falling gracefully in our faces.  We both like to go to one secluded corner of the rink and just stand there looking into space watching the falling snow and talking and thinking.

One day I received the almost fatal news.  My father might be transferred to Terre Haute Indiana around January.  When I told Karen, she cried and so did I though not in front of anyone.  We didn’t talk about it too much.  She promised she would always love me.  We became as close as too people in love could ever be at our ages.  Maybe we were too serious.  I don’t know. I don’t think we were.

Well, the weeks and months passed, I became certain that we were to move, though I didn’t know the exact date.  The truth didn’t really affect me too much because I didn’t think we could ever move from Ecorse.  It all seemed like a bad dream.

Karen and I, as I have said, were very, very close.  We were together as much as school and other necessary things permitted us to be.

My father sold our house after much effort at 4484 Monroe, and we were ready to move; at least the rest of the family was. Karen and I parted on March 15, 1962.  That did not end our love.  It made mine all the stronger.  I entered Schulte High School in Terre Haute, Indiana, and lived in the dream of the past romance of Karen and myself. 

For several years Karen and I wrote letters back and forth, seemed weekly.  I kept those letters in a box in the trunk of any car I owned to always have them near.  I didn't discard them until I was married and often wish I had kept them for those memories are and will always remain a precious part of my growing up.  I am still in touch with Karen, even now I am 77+ and very happily married.  She will always remain a dear friend.