Jane was my mother’s sister and the youngest member of the Clem Lang family. She was a student in high school when I first lived at the Lang household. I remember her as a vivacious, light-hearted fun loving person. Her beauty could rival that of any Hollywood star, and she would light up a room when she entered. She liked to giggle, and because of her pleasant personality she was quite popular.
She had many male admirers. During WWII many of these were soldiers on leave. After a while she got tired of so many boys hanging around bothering her and she would sometimes treat them poorly. I remember one soldier in particular who came all the way from Detroit to see her, but she wouldn’t come out of her room to say hello to him.
“I told him not to come”, she said in her own defense.
At the start of WWII Jane was hired by Goodyear Aircraft of Akron, a company that made planes and other devices for the military. Goodyear Aircraft’s trademark symbol was the winged-foot of Mercury and they published an in-house paper called “The Wingfoot Clan” whose purpose was to disseminate information to the Goodyear employees. In one edition Jane’s picture appeared on the front page in a swim suit as a “pinup girl”. During the war pictures of girls in bathing suits were called pin-ups because the GIs would “pin them up” on their walls and lockers. They also painted them on war planes for good luck.
Pin-ups
Some employees sent the edition with Jane’s picture to family members who were stationed overseas.
Someone also happened to send one to Fr. Bertram.
Now Fr. Bertram was not a huge fan of pinup girls! He was also suspicious of anyone who appeared to enjoy life as much as Jane did. Anyone having that much fun, especially a girl, must be up to something devious or sinful. This pin-up picture confirmed his suspicions, and the result was a month or more of fiery oratory from the pulpit at Sunday Mass. My poor saintly grandmother sat there with her ears burning, listening to her family being castigated from the pulpit Sunday after Sunday in the presence of her fellow parishioners with words like decadent, scandalous, and horseflesh. The scolding was general and no family names were ever mentioned, but everyone in the congregation knew who the villain was.
Later Jane met Chuck Weber, a quality person who had a fun-loving personality similar to hers. After a while they decided to wed, however there was one large problem – Chuck was not a Catholic. To marry a non-catholic In those days in that community was considered to be as serious as the highest form of treason.
When it came time for the wedding Jane and Chuck visited the priest to face the music. When Fr. Bertram asked Chuck which church he attended Chuck replied, “I am a Protestant”.
“WHAT ARE YOU PROTESTING?”, the priest demanded in a voice so loud that it could be heard all the way to Purgatory.
Evidently Jane and Chuck survived the grilling because they were eventually married, had three wonderful children, and lived happily together for many years.
At a family reunion after Chuck’s death many years later I asked Jane how she was doing without her life-long companion.
“I am doing fine”, she replied. “As a matter of fact, right this minute he is sitting at home on the mantel” (he had been cremated). Then she added with a light-hearted giggle, “I turned on the TV when I left the house, so he’s watching the baseball game”.
