How did your mom and dad meet?

My mother was 19 and in cosmetology school. My father was 30 and working at the county irrigation service. They were in a carpool together. My mother had never dated anyone else. They got married pretty quickly, I think in large part because my mother's parents had divorced and her mother was working shifts, leaving her the primary caregiver for her three younger siblings.

I don't want to be a downer but (1) I think that age difference with a 19-year-old is pretty gross, (2) it turns out, as I only found out after he died, that he was divorced with three kids, so the age/experience difference was even worse, and (3) absolutely no one would want to emulate their marriage.

My Mum's cousin was my Dad's best friend at high school   They were 21 and 19 when they got married and they were very happily married for over 60 years before Alzheimer's took her.

Fun topic!

My mama was the middle of three sisters. Her older sister was dating my father first, but then he dated my mother.

The youngest sister’s beau and my father were drafted into the army for WWII. They had to go from Atlanta to Slidell, Louisiana where there was an army training center at the time. The youngest sister had been threatening to marry her boyfriend for some time but their parents said absolutely not as she was too young - and the youngest sister. They considered it ‘proper’ for the girls to marry in order of age.

My mama and daddy basically married on a dare from that younger sister “to beat her down the aisle.”

They married on Christmas Day in Slidell. The local judge agreed to perform the ceremony after a waitress at the diner told him a young couple wanted to marry before he went off to war. Daddy bought mama a wedding band at a pawn shop. He even paid a young boy on a horse to pick some flowers.

All four of them - mama, daddy, her sister, and the man who became my uncle when they married - shared a room in a boarding house on the wedding night with a wood stove that overheated and nearly burned the place down.

Long story short, my parents were four months shy of their 50th anniversary when daddy died.

My mom and dad met at an apartment complex in Dallas. My mom had come down from MN to be by her sister who lived here and my dad who was recently divorced with three kids, moved into the apartment complex.

They are 5 years apart in age, but everyone warned my mom that my dad's kid "baggage" should send her running for the hills, but they fell in love and 4 years later, I was born.

I'm extremely close to my siblings even though I grew up as an only child. We all live within a few miles of each other now and moved my parents here a few years ago so we could take care of them.

They've been married 61 years this past December.

My parents were 21 and 24 and they met in my uncle's restaurant/bar in suburban Omaha. My mom worked there sometimes and my dad was a regular. They were part of a larger group of friends that included Mom's three sisters and a group of guys from the Air Force base.

They got married a little over a year later, in 1972. It was a bit of a family scandal because Dad was a Protestant. But he agreed to raise any kids as Catholic, and he faithfully attended Mass with all of us for all his life. I was born 9 months after they married. They had a good marriage - Dad would have done anything at all to keep Mom happy, and he even converted to Catholicism later in life because she had become very anxious about him not going to heaven if he didn't. Mom was a devoted wife and mother. Religious expectations aside, my two siblings and I had a great model for a happy long-term marriage. We've been married 27, 21, and 19 years respectively.

Fun stories.

They met in high school, she was 14 and he 16. He was a greaser and friendly with some of her older brothers. They are coming up on 57 years of marriage, together 62ish.

Everyone always says they made marriage look too easy because my sibling and I are both divorced!

They drive me crazy but also are my best friends and I can only feel thankful to be their kid.

My dad worked in a manufacturing plant where he met my mom’s sister who worked in the cafeteria on site. My mom and her twin both worked there too (my mom was going to cosmetology school and only worked part time) but in a different department. At some point my dad saw my mom with her older sister and he asked my aunt about her. He asked my mom out a bunch of times and she kept saying no, but eventually he wore her down and she agreed to go on a date with him. Not sure how long they dated but they didn’t get married until she was 24 and he was 30. After initially having a stillborn baby, they went on to have eight more kids and were married for almost 37 years when he passed away.

I don’t know how any of my grandparents met because all but one had passed by the time I was born. My mom’s parents were both immigrants. They were married for over 50 years. I know almost nothing about my dad’s family.

ETA: Of my seven living siblings, every one of my brothers has been married and divorced. One brother remarried, another one had a long term fiancé but she passed away and they never did get married. My sisters and I have all only been married once with no divorces, although one sister should have kicked her loser husband to the curb decades ago because he’s a jerk.

my parents met in SHAPE HQ Belgium when it was first opened (SHAPE had previously been in France). She was an elementary school teacher with the American DoD schools, he was a newly commissioned Captain in the British Army (side story here - like the US Army, the British commission as Second Lieutenant with the next rank Lieutenanat and THEN Captain but dad was made a Captain straight off because he was being sent to SHAPE as a supply officer and would need to deal with Generals regularly - this was 1967 and he had been in the Army since 1943). She was in her early 30s, he was early 40s and divorced with one child.

My maternal grandparents were classmates growing up but didn't marry until they were almost 32. They dated for years but Granny had another serious boyfriend for several years as well.

My paternal grandparents? I don't know the full story but she grew up in a railway town in England that had an Army barracks - she was from a railroading family and grandpa was Scottish and in the Army and was stationed there right after WW1 - they married in 1920 - she was 20, he was 29

Dh's parents met in New Jersey where his father was stationed after WW2 and his mum grew up. They married while my MIL was still in high school (16 I think) and FIL was 23. They divorced after 7 kids - dh is the youngest.

I don't know MILs parents story but FIL's parents - his dad brought girls to Wisconsin from Alabama to marry his sons but FIL's dad refused and married a local girl. They divorced and she went on to marry twice more (actually she married once more, THEN divorced FILs dad and then married a third time and #3 sued for annulment for bigamy and she went back to #2). He didn't remarry but had a longtime "housekeeper" who it is believed was the original bride his dad had picked out for him.

Beauty school. At least that’s what it was called then.

My mom said my dad would sit in class and clean the grease out from under his fingernails that he got from working on cars.

Dad's aunt lived across the street from my mom and her family. They started dating when she was 16 and he was 17. Continued dating while she attended college about 1.5 hours away. Married right after she graduated, six years after their first date.

They were married for 32 years, divorced for 14, then remarried each other 15 years ago!

I should have mentioned that dh and I have our parents' stories in common... my mom was a war bride (she even came over to the States on a ship that was called that... THe War Bride Boat or something like that), Australian who married a US sailor.  And my dh's mom was a war bride who married an American soldier (although I don't know how they met...I'd ask dh but he's not home). Her parents also let her out of the house even when so many US soldiers were on leave. haha Like I said in my previous reply, I think I might have locked my dd up under similar circumstances.  

That was in Copenhagen, Denmark.

They met at work. Which, incidentally, is how I met my DH as well.

My dad was stationed in Guam and became friends with my mother's brother. She thought he was cute, and told her brother "if he asks me out, I'll say yes" but he was engaged so he didn't ask her out. They eventually got to know each other better, hanging out in a group of friends, and the rest was history.

My father eventually broke off his engagement and my very surprised grandparents came to Guam for my parents' wedding, lol. They will celebrate their 53rd anniversary this October!