To others it may have seemed that Bob was sketchy about his
past and his life, as if he had something to hide, but Leta believed him when
he told her that his past was pretty simple. When they married on September 17,
1937, he was 43 years old and had not married anyone previously.
Robert Fields was born on November 14, 1893 in Glasgow,
Montana, in the northeastern part of the state. Sometimes he would call it
Eleda, because he didn’t live in town. He was born at home on a cold, snowy
morning. A local midwife delivered him. His father waited behind the curtain of
their small one-room home, because it was too cold to go outside.
He was the older of two boys born to Martin Fields and Ella
Davis Fields. While the family had several head of cattle and a few acres of
crops, his father worked for the railroad. When the opportunity arose, they
moved to Butte, Montana, where Bob did most of his growing up.
At age 23, he was drafted into the Army, where he served during
World War I in the Engineer Corps and Army of Occupation until 1921. After he
completed his tour of duty, he secured a job at the Spicer Manufacturing
Company in Plainfield, New Jersey.
“I didn’t like New Jersey much,” he confessed to Leta. “The
people there were too irritable about not being in New York. It was only a few
miles away, but you’d have thought it was the Garden of Eden they way folks
talked about it. And they acted like they had been kicked out of the place,
rather than just not living there. New Jersey just wasn’t a very friendly place
overall.”
When the Spicer operation moved to Toledo, in 1926, he went
with it.
“Best move I ever made in my life.”
He worked in manufacturing, helping to make automobile parts.
Robert owned a very nice automobile, a brand new Chevrolet
master deluxe town sedan—red. “It’s designed for travel,” he told Leta the
first time he picked her up in it. “I don’t travel much, but I like the comfort
of this beauty.”
Like a lot of men, he loved his car and took great care of it.
Once a week, he cleaned it from top and bottom, both outside and inside. The
windshields always sparkled, and during longer bouts of poor weather, he washed
it every time there was a break. He frequently checked the oil, and any little
noise or uncharacteristic behavior was approached like a major project. Bob’s
love of the automobile interested Leta’s son-in-law Ed, who also treated his
car like a favorite pet. The men enjoyed sharing their mutual interest. This
pleased Leta. Not only did it enable her to spend more time with her daughter
Vivian, but it also alleviated some of the strain Ed felt toward her.
The couples would meet at church on Sunday morning, then have
lunch at one or the other’s house and spend the better part of the afternoon
together. Frequently, Ed’s parents, Martin and Anna, and younger sister Doris
joined them. Sometimes Leta’s son (and Vivian’s brother Dale) would join them,
too. After eating, the men would sip from bottles of beer while poking and
prodding one of their vehicles, while the women would drink coffee or beer and
discuss recipes and work. Both Leta and Vivian still held jobs, at least in the
early parts of their marriages.
After the wedding, Leta officially moved into Bob’s house in
the Point Place neighborhood of Toledo. She was already there much of the time.
He would pick her up from the office at the end of her day, and they would
proceed to his house where she made supper. After supper, they would get to
talking and drinking beer—Bob loved a good beer, another quality that endeared
him to Ed—until it became too late to drive her home. It was a hot summer, and
they would lie side-by-side on his bed, hoping for a breeze.
Leta’s moving in just alleviated them of the burden of her
furnished apartment and being separated. Once they became a couple, it was hard
for them to be apart.
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