Actually, how I met my wife. (This thread was Jerry's suggestion.)

There was a dance being put on by the USO at the Blytheville AFB Airmen's Club. I had just recently been reassigned to the Blytheville SAC base for reasons. Another guy in the shop wanted me to go with him so he would have a wing man. I really didn't want to go as I figured it would be kind of dorky but I finally gave in. Boy, was I right. The dance was hosted by one older lady, playing 45s on a record player somehow rigged up to the Club's PA system, and the place looked deserted.

Scanning the room as we entered, it appeared we were the only two guys there. I was ready to walk out when I noticed two young ladies at one of the tables, the only others in the room. One was not unattractive but rather plain and mousy. (I would later learn her nickname was "Mouse".) But the other...oh, my...she was a stunner with long flaming red hair and a very flattering green satin dress. Suddenly, it was "One Enchanted Evening". I whispered to my coworker, "The red head is mine." We danced the night away and Sandy promised I could take her out on a date, with one condition. I had to ask Mouse to her senior prom, because no one had asked her. (I know. They were high school aged dependents, but I was barely 19.) I agreed, we dated, I almost lost her when her dad retired to Orlando, but that's a story for another time. 56 years later Sandy and I are still together and she can still dance.

 

I bet there are some cool stories out there. Mine is rather simple, I had a friend who told me that he knew a girl in the school he was attending, he told me that we would be perfect together. He introduced me to her during a visit I made with him at his school. He then set us up on a date after she told him that she was interested. We dated for about 5 years, and we've been married for 30 years. She is my wife , but she is also my best friend, no one understands me more than her.

 

When I got discharged from the Navy in 66, my parents moved from Baltimore, Md. to Wilmington, DE before I got discharged.I put in an application to Atlas Chemical Co in Wilmington which was a similar company lto DuPont. I went to the interview with Personnel, no HR back then. I was hired and got a job in a chemical lab. On my first day I arrived in the office of my new boss. I was seated in a chair where there were 3 secretaries. One was married, one had a boyfriend who was an army vet and one sitting in front of me was a cute blonde. The 2 other secretary’s thought she would be a good match for me. She was very nice until she smiled and displayed her buck teeth. So, adios to her. She got up from her desk and behind her was a brunette who was dating the army guy. I didn’t notice her at first. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. Before becoming a secretary she did some modeling for a local agency. I made up my mind that she was the one but she had a boyfriend. So, one day after work we were walking out together to the parking lot. I was parked next to her. She had a 63 Impala SS convertible. It was aqua with a white top. I told her that a beautiful girl like her deserves a beautiful car. She asked me where my car was parked. I said right next to you. I bought a 66 white GTO when I got out of the Navy. She was like wow, what a cool car. I think that opened the door. We walked out together every day after that. I finally got up the nerve to ask her to lunch one day and she accepted. Back in those days companies frowned on employees in our group to fraternize. So, we went to lunch is separate cars. The lunches continued and we started to really like each other. Then I asked her out to dinner at a nice restaurant and she accepted. I detailed my GOAT with blue coral and picked her up. On the way back to her house her boyfriend was stopped at a red light tight next to me. He looked over and saw us with a WTF look on his face. He was driving a MG. The light changed and I blew his doors off. No offense Dave. She was laughing hysterically. She dumped soldier boy soon after that and we fell in love. Her dad was the general manager of the local GM plant and got her the Impala at a nice discount I got up the courage to ask her Dad for her hand in marriage and he said no. I thought, shit, now what do I do. I asked him why and he said she is only 19. And she was a Daddy’s girl. Her and her Mom were listening to us at the top of the stairs. Her Mom said don’t worry, I will work on him because she really liked me. I went back and asked her Dad again and he said yes, so, after after 58 years we are still hanging out. Friends asked us our secret to this longevity. We both said Love and Compromise.

 

I was active duty Navy flying jets out of NAS Lemoore CA in the Central Valley. A local civilian who loved the Navy, offered the use of a huge barn and outbuildings for parties out in the farmland. He was Jack Stone, one of the wealthiest landowners in the Valley. The barn was not the usual barn but equipped with a commercial kitchen, 3 story rock fireplace, band stage, and all manner of seating of a couple of stories. Lots of cobwebs and Tivoli lights. The only rules were you had to invite Jack and you had to clean up.

I went there for a Celebration of Life Party (We invented excuses for parties all the time) and ran into a "cruise widow" the wife of a friend of mine who was deployed on cruise. She asked me how my dating life was and told her it was tough to meet gals in the middle of the Central Valley. She said "Wait here for a second". She returned with a slightly inebriated bombshell in a red sweater, delivered her to me and said: "Here yah go, she is single". She is the brother of another Lemoore pilot on deployment. That was it for us. I think the year was 1980 and we married in 1984.

She was living in Sacramento, a three hour drive away and came down for the party with another friend. She was an operational analyst for Social Security at the time and we exchanged deposit slips as it had our phone and address on them. Mine also had my SSN as it was used for ID cashing checks on base. She ran the number and knew all about me when we started to date. She told me later she liked me because I did not lie about anything; she knew everything!

Funny, we both graduated from UC Davis, only a year apart but we never met there.

 

Reading the title of this thread and I'm pretty sure you have never met my mother!

 

Mine isn't a happy ending story but it's how I met my (ex) husband, Andy, way before we got married in 1984.

In 1970 he moved into my neighborhood as we were both starting the 7th grade in Jr High. He lived across the street and five houses to the east. I'd walk by his house to go to the liquor store for candy, with my friend, Anne. He came up to me on his stingray bike and asked me if I wanted a ride. Right. Like am I supposed to sit on the handle bars? What a doofus!

In 9th grade he rode his bike up to me as I was walking and told me I was an "effing prude". WTH? We never talked or knew each other.

We were at the same high school starting in 1972. What attracted me then was he wasn't a little boy any more and he rode his offroad motorcycle up and down the street after he worked on it. I liked the motorcycle.

When we were both 16 years-old, I went to a drive-in with him. The kiss was like getting slobbered on by a Saint Bernard. There wasn't a second date for a while.

The next "date" he asked me if I wanted to go to Indian Dunes* and watch him race. His best friend, Mark, was racing too and I knew Mark from 6th grade. Andy never said two words to me the entire day. Why did he even ask me to go?

This is what a teenage girl with zero self-esteem accepts. Shitty home life. I went to the local park one night as he and Mark came out after their motorcycle club's meet. He talked. I got attention. We started dating. Senior year in high school we became boyfriend and girlfriend and I'd hang out with him in parents' garage while he worked on his motorcycle for the weekend desert race. He raced every weekend in the desert.

We were a couple for 6 months and I broke up with him. We were back together for a year and I broke up with him. We were back together and I'd go to desert races with him on weekends. In 1981 I got my BS in Physics and I moved to San Diego. I wanted to get away from him. He was selling drugs along with studying to learn electrical code and working. We didn't have any communication for a year but my brother was friends with him and they hung out so I always knew what he was up to. I thought maybe he got his shit together so I contacted him. We dated for a year living while we living 143 miles apart. I moved to his house and quit my job in San Diego in 1983 after we were engaged. We got married on July 7, 1984. We rode dirt bikes on weekends and went to races. We got along well. He became an electrical contractor with his own business. I worked until quitting to stay home with our babies in Feb. 1987.

We were married for 23 years total although not together for the last year of it. I still see him at my son's house and Zoolights when we go as a family with our son and daughter as we all live within about an hour of each other in Colorado. I am so glad he divorced me. I didn't have the guts but was miserable.


^1975 out at a desert race.


^1976 when he tried racing off road cars instead of motorcycles. They always broke so he went back to dirt bikes.

*Indian Dunes, located near Valencia, CA, was a legendary 600-acre motorcycle racing park operating from 1970 to 1985. It featured multiple motocross tracks, a flat track, and trails, hosting major events and becoming a popular weekend spot for racers and celebrities, including Steve McQueen. It closed in 1985 due to liability concerns.

 

My story is pretty simple. After high school my wife completed shorthand and office courses at a community college and worked in the Personnel Department at Montgomery Ward’s. Eventually she came to work for the local Power Company in the Accounting Department. I was a first line supervisor in another Department. We met on an employee bowling league and after a brief courtship we married. This past Saturday we celebrated our 57th anniversary.

When we married I was making $800 a month. A year and half later I broke the $1,000 a month goal with merit increases. That was 1970.

Somehow cars always played a part in our lives. I was driving a 1963 Corvette which didn't impress her since she was driving a 1969 Camaro. When I purchased my first MG for $200 in 1972 to start a restoration I learned my wife had seat time in this MGA long before me! She dated the original owner in the early '60's. The owner drove the car, a 1960, until 1969 when it was in a minor rear end collision. He stripped the car of all its paint and chrome in order to repaint the car. That never happened. Instead, he sold the car to fellow employee where I worked for $500. The car, still awaiting new paint, sat in his garage for three years with the bare metal rusting, when he accepted my $200 offer after I learned he needed money. The car carried 1969 plates when I purchased it in 1972. Reconditioning began in 1973 and was completed in 1976. The car was actively driven, with upgrades, to car meets and weekend trips thereafter. Parts from that car, even after being totaled in 2004 by a novice driver, are in my current MGA.

 

I had this Schwinn Sky Blue Stingray and it was my favorite possession at the time. Loved that bike and you could fit two on the banana seat. Rather intimate especially when you are in 7th grade! Of course girls were way ahead emotionally and physically from boys and me included at the time.

 

No banana seat on his bike.

 

Wednesday, July 4th, 1979 was a chilly, rainy day. All of my friends had left town for the week, some going to the Hamptons, others to Vermont or the Jersey Shore. I had to stay home because I worked in a family business. Had to be at work on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I had nothing to do on July 4th. The city of New York had decided to close the old elevated West Side Highway so that people could walk on it to watch the Macy's July 4th fireworks which were supposed to start at 9:00 pm. I lived on 23rd Street so bicycling to the West Side Highway was just a short distance.

At about 7:30 I put on a sweater (it was between 45 and 50 degrees and misting) and headed uptown. I stopped on the West Side Highway at 79th Street which was the perfect place to see the fireworks. People started coming at about 8:15 and the anticipation for the fireworks started to grow. All of a sudden it was 9:00 and no fireworks. 9:05 and still no fireworks. 9:15 and still no fireworks. A few minutes later I turned to this cute little girl standing next to me and (very innocently) asked her if she knew when the fireworks were supposed to start. A few minutes later the fireworks started but we were so busy talking that we didn't notice. At 12:30 am I walked her to the subway station and took my bicycle home, she was headed to Chinatown. Being from a traditional Chinese family she wouldn't give me her phone number so I gave her mine.

Two weeks later she called and that weekend we went bicycle riding in Central Park. Within a couple of months she moved in with me, and in 1983 we got married at City Hall. We met 47 years ago and have been married for 43 years. We probably would've gotten married sooner but being an interracial couple at a time when it still wasn't univerally accepted we wanted to spend a bit more time being sure. Looking back, we made the right decision.