Page 62 - The CRAIG family

Ed worked for the Bridge Transit Company for a while before opening Craig’s Restaurant on Spring Street in Jeffersonville. It was kind of a steak and potatoes restaurant. Aunt Goldie made the pies and deserts and most of the Craig family worked there – Aunt Charlotte, Aunt Gin, my mother. Everyone pitched in. Mary Bernhart Campbell, who would become Uncle Ed’s second wife, worked in the office.
At the time the restaurant was open, gambling was legal in Jeff and the restaurant did a good take-out business to the gamblers at the casinos. Once that gambling became illegal, the restaurant lost a lot of its clientele, the business fell on hard times and ultimately closed. (On my next trip to Indiana I am going to research Craig’s Restaurant and see what I can find)
1949: Uncle Ed was a manager for Brown Derby, and they lived at 104 S State Street in New Albany.
From Daddy’s memories in his handwriting: “RE and EE entered into a restaurant venture that ended in disaster for EE. RE had gotten out earlier. EE was unable to find suitable employment and decided to re-enter the service and continued in an Army career”.
With Ed in need of a job to support his growing family, he re-enlisted in the military but this time it was the Army rather than the Marines. It is uncertain when he joined but circa 1950-1951. We do know that Uncle Ed returned from Korea in March or April 1953 and in 1953 he was a member of Fort Wood’s G-4 inspection team, so it is most likely that he joined the Army before he was recalled by the Marines.
Note: When Uncle Ed and Daddy were discharged from the Marines, it was required that you be in Marine Reserves and could be recalled for duty. Daddy was recalled and when he went to report to let them know that he didn’t have to go to Korea, the military officer asked him how in the world he got discharged as he did and Daddy told them he had no idea and didn’t care how the mistake was made. The end result was that there was an error on Daddy’s discharge papers, and he was exempt from recall.
In April 1953, the family had a dinner party at the American Legion Hall honoring Uncle Ed, who had returned from Korea and for Uncle George who had been recently discharged from the Navy. As noted in the newspaper article the entire Craig family, as always, was there in force.
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