Fire on the Track by Roseanne Montillo

Author:Roseanne Montillo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2017-10-17T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

While Betty continued to rehabilitate, Northwestern’s Dyche Stadium became the site of two major events (technically, it was only one, with a dual purpose): the AAU Women’s Track and Field Championships, which simultaneously served as the trials for the Los Angeles Olympic Games during the summer of 1932.

Three of Betty’s former teammates were going to participate: Jean Shiley, Lillian Copeland, and Margaret Jenkins. She religiously followed their arrival in Chicago, as well as their doings. The Chicago papers were devoting enormous time and column space to them, and it seemed to Betty that she had grown to living vicariously through the abundant coverage, devouring the articles with a hunger she hadn’t known until then.

Chicago was the place to be during that summer of 1932. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been in town on July 2 for the Democratic National Convention at the Chicago Stadium, to accept his party’s nomination for president. This event vied for attention with the Olympic tryouts, held only days later. But neither the political story nor the sporting event received as much attention as Equipoise, the horse that had become more famous than the presidential hopeful or any future Olympian could ever wish to be. Betty also certainly took note that the newspapers concentrated on two women who stood out from the pack: Stella and Babe.

Life for Stella had always been tough, and it continued to be so. She had recently lost her job at the Cleveland Railroad System, and, much like her track defeats, it hurt her. Although reports claimed that participating in the Olympics was still her primary goal, she realized, as most people did, that in these turbulent times gainful employment was of the utmost necessity. Factories in Ohio had closed, and the one where Stella’s father had been employed since arriving from Poland had cut back his hours to less than half-time. He had found it impossible to keep up the monthly mortgage on their home while supporting his wife and daughters.

But there was a bright spot on the horizon. Throughout her life, Stella had looked forward to becoming a naturalized American citizen. She had submitted her paperwork in 1930, nearly two years earlier—her desire for citizenship fueled not as much by a great attachment to her new country as by her eagerness to run the Olympics as an American rather than Pole. Her citizenship exam was scheduled for June, just days prior to the Olympic trials.

On the day of the exam, she was awakened by a knock on the door. A messenger held an envelope from the Polish Consulate in New York, with a letter offering her employment inside. She was not the most qualified person to perform the job it was offering, but the letter hinted that if she kept her Polish citizenship, she would be given not only a good job but also benefits that extended to her family. No one would decline a secure, well-paid position, even if—in this case—it meant sacrificing one’s dreams and running for Poland instead of the United States.

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