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Post by lisae on Mar 27, 2024 23:15:19 GMT
Love this thread.
My mother was working at the dime store. Her boss was best friends with my dad and thought they would make a good couple so he suggested that Daddy ask her out. He did and that was the beginning of the next 59 years.
ETA: I forgot to put in the ages. I'm not sure exactly what ages they were when they met. I never asked how long they dated before they married. Mother was 5 years older and in her late 20's. She told Daddy on their first date that he should find a girl more his own age but he said he didn't want another girl. He already knew he wanted her.
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Post by librarylady on Mar 27, 2024 23:16:13 GMT
At a liquor store. Neither of them drink… Has to be more in this story...
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Post by Ryann on Mar 27, 2024 23:22:51 GMT
They met at a bar in San Diego. He lied about his age, I think my mom ended up being 3-4 years older but didn’t know it at the time. She was maybe 21/22. He was in the navy and about to be moved to Hawaii. They got married after 2 weeks and she moved with him to HI where I was conceived. I’m not sure how long they were married, but it wasn’t long. I was born in WA where we (mom & I) stayed for a couple years before moving back to CA.
DW’s parents met a few years after FIL immigrated to the US after being liberated from a concentration camp. There was a 5-6 year age difference, with FIL being older at around 29/30yo when they married. They were married until FIL death at 84. MIL died a couple years later.
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Post by Linda on Mar 27, 2024 23:28:28 GMT
My dad was in officer training at Newport RI and my mom was born and raised out there my maternal grandparents and great grandparents were Newporters - my mum wasn't despite living there most of her life (She was born in Newport) and I lived there from almost 10 to 21 myself and my oldest was born there. Small world. I worked on the Navy base for a couple of summers (1990-91)
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Post by disneypal on Mar 27, 2024 23:28:41 GMT
They both grew up in a small country town. My mom and my dad’s brother were in school together. One day my dad was sitting in the front porch when the school bus dropped off his brother. He saw my mom in the front seat & asked who she was.
His brother said “That’s xxx” & my dad said, I am going to marry her. His brother said, no way, her parents only let her go to church & school.
Sunday, my dad was in church (first time ever for him)and sat next to her, after a couple of Sundays, he asked her on a date, 3 months later, they were married.
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Post by cmpeter on Mar 27, 2024 23:33:29 GMT
He was a barker at a carnival she went to with a friend. She was 18 and he was 35. My grandparents were NOT happy. She got pregnant almost immediately after and they got married when they found out. My grandmother cut him out of all but one wedding photo and had all the altered photos re-photographed so it looks like just my moms family all dressed up for an event (my mom didn’t wear a big white dress).
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Post by mom on Mar 27, 2024 23:35:12 GMT
Both of my parents grew up in SW Louisiana and lived about 20 miles from each other. But they met and started dating while they both worked at a church camp in New Mexico when they were in college. They dated all summer then got engaged when they went back to Louisiana for fall. They even went to the same college but had never met before.
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Post by Lexica on Mar 27, 2024 23:53:32 GMT
My Grandmother ran a store from the corner house they lived in after my grandfather died. The store was small and occupied what was probably their screen porch at one time. My mom would help out in the store after work and on weekends. My dad stopped in at the store one morning to buy cigarettes on his way to the bus stop a few blocks away where he caught the bus to work. He saw my mom in there talking to Grandma so he returned several times hoping to talk to her. When he figured out that Mom was often in the store around dinner time helping out so that Grandma could prepare dinner, he started stopping in on his way home at night.
Then one morning, Mom was leaving to go to her job just as Dad came walking by on his way to the bus stop. Mom owned her own car and offered him a ride. Dad agreed and asked if he could start paying her for daily rides in and said his bus pass had just run out. Mom agreed.
They rode together, started dating, and married in her mother’s backyard garden the next year. They went to California n their honeymoon and to visit Dad’s brother who had married and been living in Anaheim by then. They returned to Canada and Mom got pregnant with my older sister. I guess pregnancy and cold weather got to Mom because she suggested they join my uncle in California. They moved a month later, Mom heavily pregnant and Dad, with no job waiting and about $100 to his name. They moved in with my uncle who had become a realtor and helped them find their first house.
Several years later when they were telling another couple how they met that Dad confessed that he had just renewed that bus pass the day prior to Mom offering the ride. Money was very tight, but Dad said he didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to get to know Mom. He hung onto that bus pass for a week to see if the rideshare with Mom was going to work out, then sold it to one of his brothers when he decided he liked what he saw and figured he had a chance with Mom.
They had two more children and then divorced when I was 4 or 5 years old due to Dad’s excessive drinking. They were divorced for a few years until my older sister tricked them into having dinner together by telling each of them that the other parent missed them and wanted it. During the meal, Dad thanked Mom for having the idea. Busted, my sister slid out of her chair to the floor, crawled out from under the table, and went and hid in the bathroom. They let her stay in there for the rest of the meal, but they were smiling at each other, not mad about it.
They started dating again and remarried after Dad promised to stop drinking. They remained very happy together until Dad passed away in his early 90s. He never got drunk again. When they remarried, Dad put forth so much effort to show Mom how much he loved her. They would go for walks in the neighborhood, holding hands and giggling at something one of them said. It was so sweet and so different then when I was little.
When Dad finally retired from working, I don’t think they were apart more than a few hours at any time like Mom was getting her hair done or Dad was getting his haircut. Dad even went to the grocery store with her and started doing a lot of the cooking. I was married and gone by this time, but lived nearby and delighted in visiting them and witnessing how close they had grown. ——- My grandparents were both born in and grew up in England. Grandma was engaged to marry. Grandma’s family was wealthy and it was a time where everyone was very class conscious and status mattered. After a while, when it became obvious that her father could never work again, my grandmother got a job in one of the family friend’s offices to help out by giving her mother her whole paycheck. When her fiancé learned she had gotten a job, he dumped her. He said he could not be seen to marry a working girl. The way my mom told us of this, it sounded like Grandma was a prostitute instead of a secretary. Mom said in those days, women didn’t hold jobs of any kind and that her doing so lowered her standing in his eyes. What a pretentious ass.
A few months later, Grandma got a visit from a guy she had gone to school with. He had heard about her getting dumped by the jerk and he wanted to marry her. Grandma told him she had a job. Grandpa said so what and asked her to quit it and move with him to Canada. I think Grandma as 19 years old by this time, considered an old maid. She agreed to marry my grandpa even though she did not love him and really never dated him. I guess there was a lot of that happening at that time in history. She said that she figured it was her only chance to marry and have a family because she considered herself unworthy since she had a job.
Grandpa and his brother had left England the year before to sail to Canada where they bought some land and built a large home. They both returned to England to get a wife and that is when a friend mentioned what had happened with Grandma. When both had secured a proposal, they returned to Canada to work on the land and wait for their fiancés to come.
Grandma and the other girl were accompanied by a shared professional chaperone on a ship bound for Canada. The chaperone remained with them until both couples were married and then she returned to England. Another common practice of that era. The couples shared the big house while the brothers began building another home on the property to separate the new families. The second house was finished and quickly occupied by one of the couples and the first of many babies. Grandma eventually had 5 babies. Grandpa’s brother had two children before tragedy struck. He was out felling a tree, clearing more land to plant more crops. Something went wrong and he was discovered crushed under that tree by my grandpa when notified by his brother’s wife that he had not returned to the house for lunch.
He lived a few days, but ultimately died from his injuries. I know Grandpa never got over it and was angry that his brother tried to cut the tree down on his own because they typically worked the land together. I guess being the older brother, he thought he could do it by himself.
They sold the land because Grandpa could not work it all by himself and provide for two families. The other wife stayed with them for a while but eventually decided to return to England with her children where she had family to help raise them. My grandparents bought a house on the edge of town in Toronto. Grandpa made a living by becoming a market gardner, purchasing a plot of land and growing fruit and vegetables on it, then taking the produce to all of the surrounding markets for them to sell in heir stores. I guess he kept several markets stocked with vegetables. They also had a big vegetable garden between their house and the garage that kept their own growing family fed. I can remember helping Grandma out there in the garden when we went for a visit.
Grandma never once returned to England to visit her family. I know Mom offered to take her and to pay for it but she wasn’t interested. I know her brother became mayor of a town and I know she had a younger sister too. I am pretty sure that I must have living relatives in England, but I never looked into it.
My father’s family came to Canada from Ukraine and my uncle had a correspondence going with a cousin that lived in the same home on the farm where Dad’s father was born. He was thrilled to learn what happened with his uncle who left for Canada when he was very young. He kept asking questions and referred to us as rich Americans. My dad and uncle would send him money. Dad said he was shocked to learn that each of Dad’s children were living in their own homes away from him and we each owned cars.
He wanted my dad and uncle to send him a car. Dad said the logistics of arranging that was impossible and since this cousin was quite a bit older, he probably couldn’t drive anyway. My uncle asked him about driving a car and while the cousin admitted he had never driven anything other than their horse cart, he was sure he could find someone to drive him around. They just kept sending money instead to help with any food and medical bills.
Then a girl visited us years ago. I know she as related on Dad’s side but I can’t recall how. So I grew up without much of an extended family around. Even those that I know, aunts and uncles from my parent’s all lived in Canada other than the one uncle who moved here first and Dad’s only sister. Eventually they talked Dad’s parents into moving here from Canada and Dad and my uncle split the cost of a cute little house for them.
This was a great question and sure took me down memory lane!
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Post by lisae on Mar 28, 2024 0:00:44 GMT
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. Have you read the novel War Brides by Helen Battle? It is about war brides from Australia.
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Post by monklady123 on Mar 28, 2024 0:20:53 GMT
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. Have you read the novel War Brides by Helen Battle? It is about war brides from Australia. I don't think I've read that one. I'll look it up, thanks!
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Post by rymeswithpurple on Mar 28, 2024 0:43:32 GMT
Mom went to a birthday party with a friend of my dad's as his date.
At said party: - Mom and dad are introduced. - Dad thought she was cute and kept pouring her drinks. - She realized that they (dad, his friend, and the friend's whose birthday it was) were all 10 years her elder.
They met in 1982 and were married 3 years later.
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Post by whipea on Mar 28, 2024 0:49:10 GMT
Not sure, but it was more than 80 years ago. I think some friends introduced them.
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gina
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,221
Jun 26, 2014 1:59:16 GMT
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Post by gina on Mar 28, 2024 0:55:54 GMT
They met in 9th grade. My Dad was left back in 3rd grade so they ended up being the same year in HS (their birthdays are a year and a day apart). My Mom went to Catholic school K-8th and when she entered HS, her guy friend 'had to' introduce her to my Dad who was a fairly bad student/teenager, drove awesome cars and had long hair he refused to cut so they threw him off the football team. lol Oh and he was a drummer in a local band (we are talking 1970 here).
They have been married for 47 years.
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Post by librarylady on Mar 28, 2024 1:07:44 GMT
This was during the depression years.
My mother was 21 and he was 25 when they married (I think).
She was selling vegetables at the local farmers market. My paternal grandfather was selling there also. They talked and he kept telling her she had to meet his son, they would be a good pair. My mother was semi engaged to another man and said that she was "taken." In October both went to a week long class at Texas A&M college about how to be better farmers, so met there. When they came home, my father kept coming over to my mother's home. She kept telling him she had a boyfriend. One night the two men both came over. I'm not sure exactly what happened at that meeting, but Daddy won the woman of his dreams. They were married in April the following year.
My maternal grandmother was very much against the marriage. Daddy's family was from Switzerland and were considered "foreigners" and he spoke both French and English. Grandmother was not wanting her to get married to a foreigner. The night they were to marry (at home with a few friends over), my grandmother held up the ceremony for about 30 minutes to give Mom one more chance to change her mind. They were married almost 30 years when Daddy died (2 months prior).
Funny story: When I was a teenager, my grandmother was visiting. My father was in his recliner. Grandma walked up to him and said, "A-----, I accept you as my son in law. Daddy replied, "I hope so! After 27 years of marriage and 9 kids, I should think so!" She drew herself up and replied, "Some people are NEVER accepted."
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Post by workingclassdog on Mar 28, 2024 1:09:06 GMT
My mom and dad met through her cousin at a church social thing.. she thinks they might have gone bowling. This would have been in Kansas City around 1965ish. They were married in 1966. They divorced in 1986. She met her 2nd husband at work. They have been married for 25 years now I think. My father has since passed, which is nothing to me.. we were not on speaking terms at that point.
I just asked her how her parents met, she really didn't know except that both families lived in the same area and probably just knew each other from that and church. She said there was probably lots of barn dances and they got together maybe through something like that. This would have been early 1900s... probably 1920s.. I think she was born in 1908. This would have been in Kansas in the middle of nowhere. They did not live by any major town. The biggest I guess at the time would have been Ottawa, which is about 45 minutes to an hour to Kansas City. They were all very poor. No bathrooms, electricity, stuff like that.
Edited to add after reading the other stories.. my parents were Catholic too.. Seems to be a thing.. lol.. they were both the same age, got married when there were about 27.. which was pretty old at that time... she didn't have me until 29. They were married almost exactly 20 years
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garcia5050
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,729
Location: So. Calif.
Jun 25, 2014 23:22:29 GMT
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Post by garcia5050 on Mar 28, 2024 1:14:49 GMT
Dad was friends with my mom’s older cousin. Dad was into zoot suits and low riders (late 60’s in east Los Angeles). My mom was living with my aunt at the time and would see him working on cousins car and she couldn’t stand all that ELA chicano stuff. They both lied about their ages. The lie age put them at 10 years apart but they were actually 17 years apart. My mom liked that he was older, had a stable job, and had a military background. When my mom married him she had no idea he was divorced and had a child, until her stepson showed up a few years later to move in with dad. I wouldn’t call it a good marriage, but they did stay married for 40+ years until he passed. I never saw them be affectionate. Ever.
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Post by fredfreddy44 on Mar 28, 2024 1:45:07 GMT
At work. Dad was an engineer. Mom worked in the blueprints and plans library. Someone thought they would click and introduced them. They obviously clicked because they met in Feb 1961 and got married in August 1961 and are still married.
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Post by AngieandSnoopy on Mar 28, 2024 2:10:32 GMT
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 great-grandmother was 19 when she married my 32 year old great-grandfather. This was in the late 1800's and he was widowed with one son. We think the main reason they married was because she was probably taking care of her nephew when her sister was dying. So the marriage may or may not have been of convenience and I'm sure she didn't want her nephew to be raised by someone else. Whatever the reason they got married, they had 9 kids. She raised 10 including her nephew. We KNEW his mother was her sister BUT he was never treated as anything but a full sibling, child and uncle.
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Gennifer
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,003
Jun 26, 2014 8:22:26 GMT
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Post by Gennifer on Mar 28, 2024 2:41:22 GMT
He was a barker at a carnival she went to with a friend. She was 18 and he was 35. My grandparents were NOT happy. She got pregnant almost immediately after and they got married when they found out. My grandmother cut him out of all but one wedding photo and had all the altered photos re-photographed so it looks like just my moms family all dressed up for an event (my mom didn’t wear a big white dress). Did the marriage last?
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Post by wordyphotogbabe on Mar 28, 2024 2:58:07 GMT
My mom and my biological father met when he picked her up with a cheesy line as she was out & about. They were both young & troubled and divorced after 5 or 6 years when I was very small.
My mom and dad (her second husband who adopted me) met through a personal ad he placed in the local pennysaver.
I'm not sure how my grandparents met. My dad's parents were very much in love, and she lived as a widow for another 20 years after he passed. She had absolutely zero interest in remarrying or "replacing" the love of her life. My mom's parents were very much not in love and only stayed together because they were "supposed to." My maternal grandmother was a widow for even longer -- maybe 25 years? -- but the abuse and toxicity had already made its mark and she was a bitter nasty woman to the end.
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Post by Zee on Mar 28, 2024 4:03:30 GMT
My Dad drove a local bus. One day when he picked up my Mother he watched in the mirror til she was seated. When she made eye contact with him via the mirror he winked at her. She stuck her tongue out at him and as they say the rest is history. There were 7 or 8 years difference in their ages. They were married a few years shy of 50 when my Dad died. For some reason my mind read "school bus" and I was like OH MY... Lol I went back and re-read!
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Post by Zee on Mar 28, 2024 4:17:43 GMT
Love all the answers, good and bad stuff alike--life is funny!
Thanks for giving me a fun read tonight ❤️
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Post by katlady on Mar 28, 2024 4:32:05 GMT
After finishing business school (where people learned secretarial skills back in the day), my mom moved to L.A. from Hawaii. She stayed with her brother who had moved out here earlier. Through the brother, she met my dad. They were married for over 50 years before he passed. I don't know how long they dated before getting married.
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Post by cadoodlebug on Mar 28, 2024 4:38:12 GMT
My mom was 3 years younger than my dad and I think they met when she was 14 or 15 at cheerleading camp. They dated and broke up at some point. When he joined the Navy in WWII, he called her to go out before he shipped out. She claims she went because she figured he probably would be killed. When he was home on leave, he claims she begged him to marry her but she said he proposed (which I believe) and they eloped in Boston in August 1943. He must have been on leave at some point around Christmas 1944 because when the war was over, he arrived in Seattle and called her (they lived in PA) and said he had a surprise, that he would be home in few days. She said she had a bigger surprise, their daughter (my older sister) had just been born.
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Post by lbp on Mar 28, 2024 13:16:17 GMT
My mom was living with her aunt and the aunt decided to go visit her friend and neighbor(my Grandmother) who had moved to the country so my mom went with her. The former neighbors son (my Dad) just happened to be visiting his mom that day. My parents were both engaged to marry someone else when they met. My mom and dad went for a walk that day, the next day they broke up with their fiances, and were married 5 months later. They were only married for 18 years when my mom died at age 37 from Leukemia.
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garcia5050
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,729
Location: So. Calif.
Jun 25, 2014 23:22:29 GMT
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Post by garcia5050 on Mar 28, 2024 14:31:37 GMT
My mom was 3 years younger than my dad and I think they met when she was 14 or 15 at cheerleading camp. : I have questions. Was he a male cheerleader from the same school, different school, was he working at the camp? Im just curious.
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Post by cadoodlebug on Mar 28, 2024 14:50:53 GMT
My mom was 3 years younger than my dad and I think they met when she was 14 or 15 at cheerleading camp. : I have questions. Was he a male cheerleader from the same school, different school, was he working at the camp? Im just curious. He was a cheerleader for a different school. They both came from small towns in the greater Pittsburgh area. He was the shortest kid in his graduating class and tried out for football and was almost killed during the first practice. He also played snare drum in the marching band. I used to have a picture of them on their first date sitting on a bench about 3 feet apart at a park. Interestingly, he grew to about 5' 11" after he joined the Navy.
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Post by JustCallMeMommy on Mar 28, 2024 15:22:37 GMT
They met in the college student union dining area, so, of course, we ate there every time we passed through that area at meal time when I was a kid, and I even walked my own kid through when she toured that school. He told her on their first date that he was going to marry her.
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Post by rymeswithpurple on Mar 28, 2024 15:25:47 GMT
I have questions. Was he a male cheerleader from the same school, different school, was he working at the camp? Im just curious. He was a cheerleader for a different school. They both came from small towns in the greater Pittsburgh area. He was the shortest kid in his graduating class and tried out for football and was almost killed during the first practice. He also played snare drum in the marching band. I used to have a picture of them on their first date sitting on a bench about 3 feet apart at a park. Interestingly, he grew to about 5' 11" after he joined the Navy. Okay, now I'm the one with the question (and you so don't have to answer if you don't want), but I'm curious where in the Pgh area since DH and I are both originally from that area.
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Post by lainey on Mar 28, 2024 15:27:11 GMT
My dad was in the navy and I'm not sure how it came about but my mum was his penpal, they wrote to each for a while then decided to meet. My mum was a year older than my dad, a fact he enjoyed teasing her about.
I still have some of the postcards he sent her while he was at sea, they're very romatic and sweet and he had beautiful handwriting!
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