How did your parents meet?

chic

chic

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U.S.
How did your parents meet, and connect?

My dad was a teeenager when World War II broke out. The following year on his birthday, he enlisted in the Navy. When the war ened and after he was discharged, he finished high school and attended college. Then he moved to a new home in a different state right next to the house where my mother lived with her parents. So I guess you could say my dad was the boy next door and the rest was history. Of course they met, fell in love and married.

So how did your parents get together? :love_heart:
 

I recall a story about my dad seeing my mom at someone’s house and being instantly smitten. (They lived in different towns about 30 miles apart.) I have a great photo of them at a club in 1949 sitting in a booth, smiling ear to ear. My mother had Rita Hayworth type hair*.... to die for. Dad had on white shirt and tie and is drinking Gambrinus beer, which is think is brewed in the Czech Republic.

*they always fought about her getting her hair cut. :)
 

Funny Chic, until you asked it hadn't occurred that I never knew the answer to your question. Of course both my parents have been gone for years so I'll never know.
 
Chic, about 25 yrs +/- ago my best friend and her husband had an idea for a great project. Whenever they visited older relatives, they asked them to take some time to tell (on video camera) how they met their spouse. I watched the video….it was GREAT! Very sweet to see the look in some of the eyes as they recalled the first meeting and their feelings/thoughts. Now, all the folks are gone but what a memory. :)
 
It's easy for me to guess, although I don't know for absolute sure, in those days, all the young people in my parents' town knew each other, went to the same church and attended the dances there.
 
My mother took a job in a factory that made airplanes and repaired damaged ones during WWII. Yes, she was a "Rosie the riveter." She then became an instructor for new hires. My father moved from another state to take a job in this factory. When he hired on she was his assigned instructor. Such a reversal of roles compared to my experience with them, it blows my mind. Go mom!
 
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Well, Mom worked at a brothel and Dad had lots of money and was lonesome.....

Just kidding!

Mom was a widow, Dad was a widower, and they met on Memorial Day 1949 in Arlington Cemetary while part of a huge group placing flowers on graves. They married in 1950.
 
My parents probably knew each other from childhood. It was a way small town and everyone knew everyone else. They got married just before my Dad shipped out. Something amusing...although my grandparents must have been horrified. While my Dad was still stateside and in basic training my Mom wanted to still be nearby so she went to Fort Hood. They were ready to say that she was a camp floozy in case they got caught. I guess girlfriends and spouses weren't allowed.
 
My dad was 17 and a "soda jerk" at a lunch counter or something like that. My mom was 15 and came in for an ice cream soda. He asked her if she wanted it extra sweet. She said "sure",so he stuck his finger in it. So like my dad-he never changed. They actually got married at 16 & 18,had 5 kids over an 18 year span and then divorced after 38 years of marriage. They didn`t stay together for the kid`s sake but I guess my dad and his bi-polar disorder drove my mom crazy once we were all gone....
 
I seem to recall that my parents met in Sunday school or at some church event. Believe they knew each other from the time my future mother was in 8th grade. They married after my dad came back from Korea.
 
An arranged marriage. My grandfather found my father a wife from the Old Country. My poor dad. Did not turn out as my grandfather anticipated.
 
My parents lived in the same street and Dad had a bit of a crush on Mum but never asked her out. When he left for WW2 he asked Mum to be a pen pal. Four years later he came home and finally asked her out. They were married for 50 years until Dad died.
 
I`m surprised at how many of your parents didn`t meet/marry until after WW2. Mine were married in 1936-had kids in 1937,1939,then took a long break,then 1948,1950 and 1955. They actually got pregnant again in 1960 but lost that baby. They were already grandparents for two years by that time....
 
My parents, both of Czech. parentage, met at a gathering devoted to physical fitness, the Czech called it "Sokol Slet". The Sokolova were folks who engaged in strenuous physical activity, not necessarily for show, but rather the overall benefit to their bodies. My Dad, though short, was always very powerful. He did those Olympic type routines using rings suspended from above, with great ease, I heard as a kid. He was 41 when I was born, the War was in full swing, and he worked long and hard hours then, one year 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. He was a Tool & Die Maker, built the first die set to blank out a Jeep dash panel in a single stroke.

The hunk of formed metal below hung on our garage wall when I was a kid for years, is made of aluminum almost 1/4 inch thick, formed from flat sheet, and pierced as shown, it's long dimension is about 16 inches, the other way it was sawn off of the entire piece, which was 10 feet long, so picture the piece below extending up and down a distance of ten feet. The "hooks" at the ends engaged similar hooks on an identical piece next to this one. The die set to make this part was so big, my Dad's shop had no press large enough to test the die. It was hauled to the Ford Aircraft Engine Plant on South Cicero Avenue (in Chicago), where he said the building shook when his die hammered out this part. Skip to the '90s movie "Tucker", starring Jeff Bridges. Plant scenes were shot in that same Ford Plant, where Tucker had planned to build his cars! That die was likely tested in about 1943-44, Tucker leased the vacant plant in '48, the movie came about '92 or so. Our pilots here might chime in with recognition of what that part exactly was for.

Historically, mountainous piles of these 10 foot metal parts were abandoned and left behind when the War ended. They, and tons of heavy artillery shell casings, Jeeps, etc.




I am proud of my Dad's contribution to the War Effort, and even prouder, that he stood behind his work with dignity, and explained it all to his only son. imp
 
My parents married in 1955 and met just the year before. Nothing romantic about the way they met..so I won't tell it.. It was the second marriage for him, and first for my mum who was quite a bit younger than him..
 
My parents were both born in a small town in Germany where they met and became sweethearts.
At the end of WW1 Dad emigrated to Calif.
He then borrowed some money and paid for Mother's fare.
She had been the town beauty, but was totally ignored in S.F.
In the long run both became very unhappy in their marriage.
I ran away as often as possible, starting at age 5 (on the bus to Auntie Rose and Onkel Rudolph in the country); at age 8 by myself to loving grandparents in GE.
 

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