Some of life’s occurrences have a one-word explanation: Fate.
That’s how Milton and Virginia Julian have looked at life since meeting one spring day in 1945 after Milton knocked on the door of his brother Ira’s home and a delightful blonde responded.
“Who are you?†Virginia asked in her native Greensboro accent.
“Well, who are you?†Milton tossed back with a quickening heart. “Is Ira home?â€
Ira, an attorney and owner of the Kent Street Bakeries in Greensboro and Winston-Salem, was away on a business trip and had asked his reliable employee, Virginia, who was working her way through college, to manage the Winston-Salem store in his absence and stay in his home with the maid and two of his children.
Milton, of Brockton, Mass., had just been discharged from the Army Air Force after serving for three and a half years during World War II. The youngest of five boys, he returned to Ira’s home, where he had lived in 1935 while establishing in-state residency before receiving a degree at the University of North Carolina. His plan was to return to Chapel Hill and complete a law degree that he was two years into.
“It was love at first sight,†Virginia said. Milton, sitting next to her this past Monday, on his 90th birthday, nodded, then smiled, absorbed in the memory.
Milton went back to school, but six weeks into it decided to return to the haberdashery business. He had sold shoes and socks before the war, but now he joined his brother Maurice, who had started selling to servicemen training in Chapel Hill during the war, but was now serving clientele returning to school, at Julian’s College Shop.
The conjugal knot was tied on Dec. 31, 1945 as Milton and Virginia were on their way to Florida. A woman by the title of “Ordinary†married them in McIntosh County, Georgia.
“Then all hell broke loose,†Milton said, laughing. They had married outside of their faiths, and both Jewish and Methodist families were in an uproar.
Virginia has an answer for everything.
“I immediately started having babies,†she said.
“Virginia said when we were dating that she’d like to have a big family,†Milton said brightly. She bore seven — five boys and two girls.
In 1947, Milton decided he wanted his own store; nine months later, after exploring opportunities elsewhere, he opened Milton’s Clothing Cupboard, adding to what would become an era with seven men’s clothing stores on Franklin Street.
“I started out across the street,†Milton said. “We were sometimes not so friendly, but were mostly friendly competitors,†he said of Maurice, who would later sell his store to his children, Alexander and Missy, who continue it as Julian’s.
Milton expanded, with stores in Atlanta, Dallas and Charlotte, totaling six. With his attention on business, Virginia kept up with the children. As their family also expanded, they outgrew every size of apartment at Glen Lennox and in 1955 moved into a contemporary home designed by George Matsumoto that they built on Ledger Lane.
Shannon Julian, the third son, remembers those halcyon days: “It was pretty neat growing up in the tiny version of Chapel Hill. When I was 10, I thought I knew almost all of the full-time residents. I always enjoyed some of the comments about Virginia. Here was this striking beauty driving around town in a baby-blue Buick Skylark convertible with a mess of kids in the back.â€
Virginia’s love of horses, fox hunting and dog training served her well in raising their brood.
Milton closed the door at 167 E. Franklin St. for the last time in 1992 (it’s now home to Franklin Street Pizza & Pasta), at age 74. He sold the Charlotte store to his son Bruce; but he continues to clothe clients, meeting them in their homes or offices, where he takes measurements and, working with a tailor, delivers the goods a week or so later.
“Last week I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Charlie Nelms, getting new clothes for the chancellor of North Carolina Central University,†Milton said.
Three mornings a week, the couple rises at 4:30 and arrives as the doors of the Duke Health and Fitness Center open, where they spend 75 minutes working out, followed by coffee with fellow members.
“I started it in 1981 when it was a new facility,†Milton said. “Virginia started six months later. Now it’s been 27 years, three times a week.â€
Virginia, 87, stays busy caring for four horses on property off Old N.C. 86 that she acquired in the late 1980s. A few years ago, they enlarged the smaller of two log cabins on the property, sold their house in town and moved out to the farm, up the hill from their daughter Jami and her family.
Virginia keeps a garden through the assistance of her “adopted son,†David Weaver, who stops by regularly.
“They are the most wonderful people,†Weaver said. “They’re so funny — they’re two people with such different opinions and views — it’s somethin’.â€
They laugh their way through their differences.
“In my eyes there’s no sweeter couple,†Weaver said. “They’re extremely special.â€
Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com.