When 19-year-old Helen Schmidke and Erich Heubach were married in Princeton, New Jersey on Feb. 3, 1951 there was several inches of snow on the ground. A few days later they were marveling over palm trees and oranges growing in the Florida citrus groves. They chose a then novel way of getting to the Sunshine State for their honeymoon – they drove.
“It was a small wedding,” Helen recalls. “About 20 to 25 people and the next day we left for Florida. We only had a week or so and then Erich had to report for the draft.”
The Heubachs were an unlikely couple. Both had been born in the United States and, as small children, moved to Germany with their parents just before World War II broke out. The families, who didn’t know each other, were unable to return to the States until after the War was over. Coincidently, both ended up living in the Princeton, N.J. area. Helen was a family domestic and Erich an electrician. More coincidence – her employers were friends with his employer. And, so they met.
“He showed up and at first I wasn’t that excited,” Helen laughs. “But he was very serious.”
The newlyweds traveled south in Erich’s car – a black Dodge coupe of indeterminate age – more or less following U.S. 1 which paralleled the Atlantic coastline. On the ferry from Kiptopeke to Norfolk, Virginia they had their first experience with segregation that still existed in that state.
“We were walking around the deck, looking at everything and we ended up at the back of the ferry,” Helen says. “A crewman came along and told us we shouldn’t be there. We asked why. ‘This area is for the coloreds,’ he said.”
In Florida they marveled at the citrus groves, beaches, warm water and attractions.
“There were so many oranges just lying on the ground. We didn’t even pick up any of them. We were afraid we might get into trouble.” But most of the time was spent on the move, the deadline of Erich’s draft reporting looming over them. One stop Helen remembers was Turner’s Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg which had been a famous attraction since the early 1900s. One of Helen’s photos from the trip was an out-of-the-window moving shot of Tampa Bay with the car dashboard prominent on the foreground.
The concept of The Villages was still a decade away and Florida was yet to experience the “senior boom.” Disneyworld was still 20 years in the future. The couple stayed in motels and cabins and ate in roadside restaurants.
“It was nothing like today when you can grab a sandwich at a gas station.”
As soon as they returned to the snow of New Jersey Erich reported in to the Army and was sent to Fort Dix for basic training and, later on, to officer training school.
“Then he was posted to San Luis Obispo in California. Oh my gosh, I said, are they going to send him to Korea?”
But the Army, ever full of surprises, sent Erich to Germany as a translator – good news because his parents and many relatives still lived there. The bad news was that his troop ship was caught in the infamous North Sea storm of Jan. 31, 1953 that caused widespread damage and several hundred deaths on land and at sea. Erich and his shipmates, battered and sodden, made safely it to shore days late.
A few months later Helen and their four-month-old son, Freddie, traveled to Germany to join Erich. “We had bought a new car, a Plymouth, just before Erich was sent to Germany and the Army sent the car over there for him. We were able use it to visit his parents and family, whom he hadn’t seen since 1946, and my family members over there. They were all very proud of him.”
Helen and Erich returned to the U.S. on the same troop ship – but were separated while on board. “I had a cabin with another woman and her baby. Once I didn’t see Erich for two days. I was worried – we were on the same ship after all.” When they did finally reunite Erich explained that he had drawn duty and couldn’t leave his post on the ship even to see his wife and son.
Returning to civilian life and looking for a job was discouraging for Erich.
“After four weeks of looking he didn’t have anything,” Helen says. “He said ‘If I don’t find anything today I’m going to sign up for the Army again.’” He got two job offers that day, accepting the one from Public Service Electric & Gas (they paid $5 a week more), where he stayed for the rest of his working life. He also stayed in the military, joining the Army Reserve where he retired as a colonel.
After 50 years of marriage and raising two sons, Helen and Erich moved to The Village of Hadley where they encountered another odd twist of fate.
One Sunday they attended a service at Trinity Lutheran Church. Afterward they both commented that the man sitting next to them in the pew seemed familiar. “I was in bed that night reading the church bulletin that I had picked up. Suddenly I see a name and I started shaking Erich. ‘I know who that was in church today. It was the pastor who married us 50 years ago.’” They saw him one more time just before he moved to southern Florida.
After Erich’s death Helen stayed in The Villages and now divides her time between Central Florida in winter and a summer home in southeastern Virginia. She dotes on her dog, looks forward to visiting with her sons and their families, spending time with her sister, Hildegard, and working on her memoirs. An album of black and white photos helps permanently document her whirlwind honeymoon driving through 1950s Florida.
John W Prince is a writer and Villages resident. Learn more at www.GoMyStory.com.
