Happy Anniversary!

Being a collector of romantic "how we met" stories, I have to admit that my own chance meeting with my future husband is one of my favorites:)

We've been through many ups and downs together, but together we are...after 33 years...and he's still my best friend.

During my senior year of college I had an internship working at the State Department of Agriculture in our tiny capital city. I had made one of those last minute housing arrangements and planned to live with my roommate's sister's boyfriend. The situation became more complicated when they broke-up the night before I arrived. The ex was still happy to have me stay,and greeted me with the announcement that we would be attending a very special event.


He and a large group of friends had just returned from a weekend road trip to the Jersey Shore.One of the friends had the brilliant idea of carrying a tape recorder so that the event could forever be preserved for group memory.On this night they were all assembling at the local hangout to hear the tape played back.We arrived to a full house and I squeezed into a booth to listen to a hilarious series of interviews and narrations chronicling this historic odyssey to the shore.I quickly noticed that I was one "middle man" away from a very cute guy.

If I could only lose the guy in the middle, I could make my move.Finally as the tape came to an end, the beer that had been drunk prevailed and "middle man" wanted out.The cute guy was even cuter close up. I decided to make a move. I put my hand on cute guy's leg and said,
"I hope you're a lady's man, because I'm a man's lady." (true...we both actually remember that:)
I fell in love, he did, too and the conversation began that night is still going on.

My Mom and Dad

The first time I posed the question, "So how did you meet anyway?" the subject naturally enough, was my mother. We were in the kitchen and she was ironing a never ending pile of cotton shirts. She put down the iron and with a wry smile on her face told the story of how she met my father.

My mother was a nurse working in Providence, RI during World War II. The war had just ended and her former roommate, Virginia, was in town to show off her blossoming family. As their afternoon visit wound down, Virginia's brother, along with a group of friends, started to head out the door. Never one to waste the still rationed gasoline, my future grandmother added several items to his agenda along with, "Why don't you drop Virginia's friend off while you're out?".

Several blocks later, not wanting to impose on anyone, my shy mother hopped out at the next stop sign and walked home. My father, hoping to get an opportunity to "chat up" my mother, was dismayed to find her gone.

He went to his sister to ask about my mother's dating status and was given the not too truthful reply, "She's practically engaged." Having lost too many years to service in the Pacific, and never one to waste any time, my dad made his move and the rest is family history, our beginning.