March 5, 2013
How did your parents meet? My Dad told me recently how he met Mom over 70 years ago at the University of New Hampshire.
The students were going to Thanksgiving dinner. Since it was a special occasion, they had the men and women eat together. They each filed in separately, sat down—and there she was, his bride-to-be, seated across the table from him! It happened again the next month. For Christmas the same process took place and in they filed, separately: men on one side and the women on the other. And there she was again, seated directly across from him! Given their series of serendipitous encounters they knew their love was meant to be and a courtship began. When the nation was attacked at Pearl Harbor, my Dad enlisted. Following World War II they married—and a few weeks ago they celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary.
Newspapers have preserved the stories of our lives—including Bill Nye’s interesting story of when he first met his parents.
Mid-1800s American humorist and newspaper columnist Edgar Wilson Nye, aka Bill Nye, remembered the day when he first met his parents—“a casual meeting” that over the years forged itself into a “powerful bond” between his parents and himself. Read his poignant and humorous account here: http://bit.ly/12wNaMx
Bill Nye was having fun with his audience, but it does raise the question: how did you meet the family members you love? And how did they meet? How did your parents meet?
Record your family stories, and pass them on to the rising generation.
And share your family stories with us. Tell us how your parents or grandparents met, or when you first met your parents, in the comments.
Not long after World War II ended, my mother attended a wedding in Fournier Hall in Wilmington, Delaware. My father attended a different wedding in the same building. The wedding my father was attending ran out of beer, so he and his friends crashed the other wedding. They sat at the table where my mother was sitting. During the ensuing conversation, it was discovered that my father had a car and my mother had gas ration coupons. So they decided to go on a picnic. They got married in 1949, had five children, and were married until my father died in 1949.
That’s a wonderful story, Patricia–thanks for sharing it with us!