What’s a meet-cute you say? You’ve seen it over and over in your favorite romance reads and rom-coms. It’s the magic maker. Two people have a cute, charming, or amusing first encounter (that’s the dreamy meet-cute) after which they’re sure to fall in love and eventually get together. My grandparents, Flo and Les, are that story.
Without the Greenwood Line, the first electric interurban train line branching out from Indianapolis, we’d have no story. The commuter line began its hourly schedule in 1900 and carried 330,000 passengers that first year. The one-way fare was 20 cents; round trips cost 30 cents. Somehow amid the interurban’s throng of workers, shoppers, and small town visitors heading to and from the city, Les spotted Flo in 1909.
The inbound track converged at the Indianapolis Traction Terminal located downtown at Illinois and West Market Streets, across the street from Wm. H. Block department store and one block west of Monument Circle with the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. The surrounding blocks would eventually become the courtship zone of our commuters.
Flora Keefe was “the city mouse.” Until 1908, Flo and her family lived in the bustling Fletcher Place neighborhood of downtown Indy, just over a mile southeast of Monument Circle. Mama was a “homemaker”, Papa was a printer for the Indianapolis Star newspaper, and they raised one son and five daughters. The daughters, aka “The Five Keefe Girls”, were a happy group that sewed their own clothes, put on plays and sang songs in their living room, went roller skating, and visited Wonderland amusement park for a variety of fun and lighthearted activities. By 1909, they moved seven miles south to the new town of Edgewood. Platted in 1907, the town offered city dwellers “country living with an easy commute to Indianapolis” via the Greenwood interurban line at Stop 8. Flo would ride the line into town to her job as a glove fitter at Tucker Glove Company.
Leslie Askin was “the country mouse.” Les rode the Greenwood line two miles farther south to the Southport Stop, walking a mile home to the center of the tiny town. His mother was also a “homemaker”, and his father was a Civil War veteran and the town postmaster. They’d moved from Kentucky to rural Southport in 1893 with their four children. Les worked as a salesclerk in the Men’s Department of the Wm. H. Block department store.
So the glove fitter and the salesclerk rode the Greenwood Line to and from Indianapolis every Monday through Friday. Les boarded before Flo in the morning and she got off first every evening. Riding to town with her older sister, Madge, laughing and talking all the way, chances are good she never even noticed Les. The girls wore conservative attire for the work day and sported very large hats to and fro. Les, snappily dressed in his one suit for sales in the Men’s Department, rode to town with his friend, Mitt – also a friend of the Keefe girls! (The meet-cute is coming!!)
After what I’m sure was very well-mannered interurban stalking, Les asked Mitt for an introduction, sharing “those girls in the big hats sure have the fun!” Done. Mitt was invited to visit the Keefe family one Sunday afternoon, and he could bring his friend along. Off they went to Edgewood! Mitt introduced Les to Madge, and they spent the afternoon enjoying the company. On the ride home, Les thanked Mitt, but said, “Madge was very nice, but it was FLO I wanted to meet!”
And so it began with Les and Flo. Conversations on the train, more chatting in the Indianapolis terminal, walking to each other’s workplaces when time permitted, more conversations on the train. Frequent visits to the Keefe home, occasional forays to Indianapolis fun with the friends and family gang – always well chaperoned!
Flo would say later in life that she only had eyes for Les. He was smitten from day one. They married March 30, 1910 in the parsonage of Fletcher Place Methodist Church in the Keefe’s old neighborhood. She was almost 19, he was 23. They welcomed their first child, my Aunt Irene, on May 24, 1911.
On March 30, 1960, at their daughter Irene List’s home in Southport, Flo and Les celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary among family and friends. I was 8, dressed up in my Christmas red velvet dress, and really impressed with the size of the cake! They celebrated their 56th anniversary one month before Les passed away. She told me long after that she loved him every day of their lives. Now that’s a solid meet-cute!
