OT: How I met my spouse

[Ozzie Nelson]

I was a junior in college, my Dad had suddenly died spring last, and I had been on a girls and booze binge for about 8 months. As was my custom, I studied daily in the library, and in going there I would remove my glasses to look cool, as if. I arrived at the “study table” of my fraternity, and began to work. As I did so, I heard this angelic voice to my left. W/o looking, I turned to my right and asked a frat bro who the voice belonged to. He sez…”That’s Lee, the winter festival queen, you idiot”. Well, I put on my glasses, glanced to my left, and the lightning bolt hit with full force. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. We struck up a conversation, busted on each other for awhile, she in her feisty way, and then I asked for her phone number. She reluctantly acquiesced, and it was the all over for me. Love at first sight. Frankly, I was completely discombobulated.

She went home and told her family that she had met someone, but was not interested. Later I called and convinced her to have a go at our next frat party, and that’s the story. I was VP of the frat and I had to use that for leverage.

We became a campus couple, a great time to remember. Four years later, we were married in the small town of East Aurora NY, and we the embarked on our life.

I remain smitten to this day, and in some ways she remains equally reluctant.

 

[Icebear]

Met my wife at Gettysburg Seminary at the beginning of my second year, her first. I had had a fiancé who panicked about being in the fish bowl of the parsonage and the wedding ended up called off at the beginning of August leading into that school year. Some of you UCONN football fans may have heard of her eventual step son, Dan O. She and I have remained friends for all these years.

My wife had left Pan Am where she had been a flight attendant for a decade to come to seminary. A month into school we started dating and in November we went to her home in Wheeling for her brother's wedding. We got engaged on Valentine's Day when she said yes to the question I had asked a week earlier and married in April 33 years ago. It was a then or never situation because in the Lutheran Seminary grad school process you are only on campus for one year with any other class. And the rest as they say is history.

 

[~*Jen*~]

I don't remember how we met. LOL. (Okay, I don't remember our very first meeting.)

We were freshmen in college. His best friend was dating my best friend. I would see him a lot but didn't think anything of him. Then right around exam time (December, not May), I just had this incredible premonition that I'd end up marrying him. I was NOT interested and, in fact, tried to avoid him. Then around March... I don't know. I got interested. Started stalking him even. I was so jittery around him, not relaxed like I'd previously been. And by April, we got together. That was 14.5 years ago. (WOW.) We've been married for 11.5 years now. In 2002, we got married and moved to Connecticut to finish our degrees at UConn. And now we're happy raising a little Husky. Who, by the way, reminds me daily to wear something UConn-related. And tells me that she needs to grow up to be big and strong so she can "Go Huskies!"

 

[ChicagoGG]

I met my husband in the basement of a Chicago brownstone where our two colleges shared a radio station. He had come to assist his friend the news director, I was the PR director. I had heard he was engaged, and therefore just thought he was a nice guy, but no further interest. Fast foward two weeks to a radio station party, and in he comes, solo. No more fiancee. We spent the evening together and have never looked back. We married three years later, so have been together for 43 years, and married for 40. Three weeks later, I would have graduated and probably never met him. I am a most fortunate woman!

 

[meyers7]

Well I did meet my 1st wife on a blind date (and she happened to be partially blind at the time - diabetic retinopathy). Now either she changed dramatically over the years or I was really the blind one going in. Anyway the only good thing to come out of that wreck of a marriage was 3 great kids. Easily the worst decision of my life.

2nd and much, much better wife I met when we chaperoned a trip our kids went on to DC. I had recently gotten divorced, but she was still married at the time. We got along real well but in a "friend" way, because she was married. But I thought, geez if she had been my wife (or if my 1st wife was like her), I'd have never gotten divorced. Saw her occasionally at school functions of our kids, no biggie. A couple years later, a mutual friend mentioned, had I heard "M" was getting divorced? No, I hadn't. That.....is....too....bad. But there didn't seem to be any reciprocating interest at the time. Still ran across each other now and again. I dated some during this time, but always in the back of my head was the thought, if I ever do get remarried, it's gonna be "M".

Then a couple more years later (this makes about 6 total from when we first met), we ran across each other at a soccer field. This time something clicked for her. (she says she saw me in a whole new light that day) We went out to dinner and a movie and got married about 7 months later. My daughter asked me why older people seemed to get married very quickly? Was it because we were old and gonna die soon? Yes, that's exactly why. 5 years next month.

People sometimes ask me how long have I been married. 20 years. 15 sucky ones, and 5 great ones.

 

[jsloanjr]

Great post by all, I met my wife 35 years ago on Halloween night at a party and we were the only 2 with costumes. She was standing by the dance floor rail and I asked her if I could buy here a drink and she said sure. She said Johnnie Walker Black on the rocks and my heart said no way........That was my drink at the time......She was a teacher and she went to my HS arch rival and knew my name from playing football, but never met and we were both coming to this night club for many years called Vispi's Camolot .........Thursday is my 35th year of being so lucky to have met at a party that I was not going to stop by..........The old Yogi Berra line that "Nobody goes there anymore because its too crowded"..

 

[UCONNfan1]

Match.com. She was working in Orange County and living in Dana Point and I was living in Del Mar.

 

[LesMis89]

I met my husband in Room Zero of the Sycamore Lodge in my hometown in the Midwest. I was back from NYC to move my sister out to Connecticut and he was a friend of hers from local community theater. He came over to say good-bye. We looked at each other and BOOM! That was August. He came out to visit me in NYC in January and we got engaged. Married that next December. It will be 24 years in December.

 

[doggydaddy]

It was January 15th, 1972 and a good friend of mine was trying to convince me and another friend to help him out. His girlfriend asked him to have one of his friends double date with them that night. Neither one of us wanted to go. We had a vigorous discussion when I finally said "fine, I'll do it"

We met at his girlfriends house because her parents were out of town. They made us a spaghetti dinner and we just hung out. We all stayed over and had a great time. I really liked this girl. The next day, Super Bowl Sunday, my friend and I left. As we drove away, I said to him "I'm going to marry that girl".

We dated, I went to her senior prom, beach weekend and we dated all summer until she went off to college. I missed her terribly but as most HS romances, she found someone else at college.

When she left her school and moved home to finish school, we started to go out again. A year later we were engaged and in 1975 we were married.

Two kids, two grandkids later and 38 years, we are still in love. I'm a lucky man.

 

[FairView]

Walked into an advertising agency to drop off samples of my work and an angel was sitting behind the reception desk. Gorgeous, sexy, friendly and with a devilish grin .... I ended up getting the job and she and I became fast friends. I had a girlfriend and she lived with a guy. We even double dated. I always felt the attraction, but was sure someone this perfect was waaaaaayyyy out of my league. Then one day we were at a bar as couples. All four of us had too much to drink -- the norm at that point in my life -- and she came to the juke box to help me pick out songs. She confessed she had feelings for me and I was floored. The next week was our company Christmas party and the owner sent limos to our houses to pick each person up and take us home. She and I ended up in a limo together with four other people at the end of the night, both men and women. We continued bar hopping and even went to a gentlemen's club -- ahh the old days of advertising mayhem. Anyway, we engineered the rides home so that she and I were the last in the car -- even though we drove right by her apartment complex twice to drop other people off. Then we talked and drove around until 4:00 am. We realized we loved each other that night and we've been together ever since. At one point, the driver sheepishly came on the intercom and asked if we had any money because he was low on gas and he didn't have a company card or any cash. I gladly directed him to an ATM. We celebrated our 15th anniversary this summer and we are blessed with a 12-year-old son. My only regret is that I didn't meet her sooner. I'll turn 91 two weeks after our 50th anniversary and I'd like more time with her!

 

[ctfjr]

Ahh, a trip down memory lane.

As a freshman at Northeastern and away from home I quickly contacted my cousin who was a freshman at Wheelock College. She set me up with her roommate, Laurie, whom I dated for the entire year. Fast forward to September of my sophomore year and her best friend Edie, started Wheelock then.

I met Edie on a Saturday and I was smitten. I had a date with Laurie that night & convinced my roomate, Al, to show up for me as I had already asked Edie to go out that night. Now 48 years later Edie & I are still married (43 years) as are Al & Laurie

 

[cohenzone]

It was late winter of my first year at UConn law. During a particularly boring torts class, the guy sitting next to me, with whom I'd become friendly, leans over and asks if I want to go out with his cousin. I asked him what she looked like. He takes a sheet of paper (we still have it) and draws a stick figure with curly hair. Of course, Olive Oyl would intrigue anyone, so I said, sure. We made a dangerous plan. His cousin was a senior at BU (but lived near New Haven). My friend was engaged (irrelevant fact) and suggested that we double date in Boston, and stay overnight (nothing nasty). So it would be a two day blind date. Well, first appearances, his cousin was no Olive Oyl, but such a dead ringer for Ali McGraw, who was then hitting her height of fame, that for years, people would comment on how much my wife resembled Ali. So this seems great, right? Wrong. The first day was a disaster. She was sarcastic as could be - turns out she had had a bad break up several month earlier and had a low opinion of males at the time. I really wanted to avoid day 2, but after some zany events related to her immediate family which happened to be in Boston to visit her brother at Tufts, the ice was broken early the next day. We rarely missed a weekend after that, were engaged 9 months later, and married in another 9 months, before I started my last year of law school . 44 happy years later, the rest is history.

Regarding my wife's strong resemblance to Ali McGraw, I'll never forget sort of a funny incident at the law school. There had been some sort of cocktail reception for the students and dates. I was married by then and brought my wife. The next day, I'm sitting in the law school cafeteria when this guy I barely knew walked up to me and said "Hey, that chick you were with last night is hot. She looks just like Ali McGraw." I showed him my wedding band and informed him that the hot chick was my wife. He got totally flustered, and says "I really never liked Ali McGraw".

 

[CTyankee]

How about this......

I was a beach lifeguard on a public beach in Long Branch, NJ. Three man beaches... Lifeguard stands and lifeguard boats. One weekend in the early 60's our stand was approached by a pretty brunette who asked me if the tide was going out or coming in... I responded that the tide was coming out, which raised a question to her. She was stumped; I was delighted. The tide was never going to go in both directions at once; it was either coming in or going out. She had to have an explanation which I was glad to deliver.. I was intrigued as her accent was not a usual Jersey accent, and not one from NYC... Where was she from??? We talked for a while and she during that time she asked for some pictures to be taken with her camera for which my fellow guards obliged... On the lifeguard stand... In the lifeguard boat... All of which were very much forbidden... No one but guards were allowed on the lifeguard stand nor in the lifeguard boat. All the while my fellow guards were watching, laughing and gossiping among themselves... But I was smitten...

She had dinner with me... She was from Germany it turned out and was going to college part time at Seton Hall and working as a secretary in north Jersey during the day. She disappeared after dinner, Cinderella like, back to her home in North Jersey... Work for her on Monday... For me back to the beach.

Fast forward to the end of summer... I returned to college... Playing soccer that fall I ripped up my leg and ended up in a full leg cast... One day close to Christmas I received a letter from her with the pictures taken at the beach,,, What a memory it was. Our faces glowed... There was a obviously a big attraction for both of us in the pictures...

So I called her... And made a date to visit... I drove from the shore to north Jersey in a stick shift Chevrolet in my cast to meet her while carrying a small Christmas tree for her small apartment. She was delighted. We went to dinner at a local diner in Linden... I asked her out for New Years Eve and it was there that I proposed...

I was sure... She was sure... Soulmates... On our 3d date...

We now have been married for 47 years this September... With many more to come...

 

[UCONNRPh]

Litchfield Hall!!! Welcome to the Jungle!!

 

[wire chief]

Well, see my folks yanked me out of public school and dropped me in the newly opened Catholic
one for 4th grade. That's where I 1st met the freckled redhead I married, no, not right away.

 

[Fishy]

I can't remember exactly, but I'm sure she does.

Lucky girl.

 

[Kibitzer]

After I retired from military service, I went to work for the Vinnell Corporation in Saudi Arabia. I met Donna there, where she was working as a nurse at the new King Faisal Hospital. When our contracts ended, she went home to Toronto and I had a job awaiting me in Connecticut. The commute got expensive so we married 35 years ago.

There wasn't much social life in the Kingdom so we took to going out in the desert for picnics and camping. We acquired a local taste for starting our picnics by placing an oriental rug on the ground. Ever since, when we picnic (like at Tanglewoood), we are the envy of concertgoers when they spot our elegant (but eminently practical) 4x6 oriental rug beneath our feet or tables or coolers. Talk about making a silk purse from a sow's ear!

 

[MilfordHusky]

Really nice stories. Thanks for sharing.

I met my now-ex-wife in high school. Dated, got married very young, became parents very young.

 

[tomcat]

Wow. 50 years, 44 years, 37 years. Those of you who have had a single marriage that was IT, I have to envy you. By comparison, I feel like a kid, thought I am, to put in gently, in a somewhat similar demographic.

So here's my story: There was a first marriage which, well, we won't get into. By 1999 I was divorced for 10 years, a single parent of a wonderful daughter and each summer, she and I would go somewhere on vacation. This particular year, she decided she wanted to do vacation with her mom, which left me with no agenda at all. I had always wanted to do some genealogical research up in Canada, where my father's family is from, so I started going online to plan a trip.

On a genealogy website, there was a woman from the other end of Quebec from where my family originated, but she was very helpful, steering me to family documents and a variety of other great information that allowed me to visit all the towns and villages where my direct ancestors lived over a 400-year period.. I had planned to focus on the area between Montreal and Quebec City, where my family mostly lived, but I had an extra day and decided to drive to Ottawa to see the capitol -- Parliament, changing of the Guard, all that -- so I invited her to lunch, as a way of thanking her for all that help. we had a great time, and that pretty much settled that.

We began a long-distance commuting relationship --I was living in Philly at the time -- and got married about a year later. We've been together 11 years and, assuming she can put up with me, many more to come.

 

[ABachelor6CR]

Met my wife on singles.net. We "talked" online for a couple of weeks when she asked if I would go to a Brazilian festival in Bridgeport with her. We set up a meeting place and when I got there I could not find her. I looked all over the parking lot but still could not find her so I called the number she gave me. She said she was in front of the store but I still could not see her. After explaining what businesses were nearby I heard her gasp and say "I'll be right there!" (She had gone to the wrong location....LOL).

When she did arrive, I walked up to the car and noticed a woman sitting in the backseat and my first thought was "WTF?" then it dawned on me that this woman was "security" in case I was a real scumbag. After walking around the festival and getting something to eat we ditched her security and ended up talking for a few more hours. She looked at her watch and said she had to go home to change for church and asked if I would go with her. I thought whats an hour out of my life and said yes I will go. Two and half hours later sitting listening to a sermon all in Portuguese we ended up getting a late dinner.

10 months after our first meeting we were married.

 

[cferraro04]

I was 15 years old... I had a close friend her name was Shelly...she had a reputation for being smart in math. I thought with the PSATs coming up maybe I could do with a little tutoring. Well, Shelly was a great teacher...in fact I scored higher on the Math portion than she did... She wasn't very happy with that result...but, she was very interested in a friend of mine...she wanted to date him but she also didn't trust him...he had a reputation with the ladies...so, she asked if we could double date...I would set her up with my friend and I would in turn take out her girlfriend, Gerry. I had never met Gerry...so, I must say I wasn't that enthusiastic about the date but, being the good friend that I am...I decided to take one for the team. We were to go bowling that evening... Luckily my friend Bobby owned a car and we went to pick up the girls... Well, I get my first glimpse of Gerry...a short 5'2" brunette with hair down to her lower back. She was absolutely stunningly beautiful...and I realized in an instant that I was definitely dating up. The night went pretty smoothly with me pretty much wondering what did I do to deserve such good fortune. She was friendly, pretty and very smart...she graduated number 5 in a class of 585. That was Saturday night... I didn't talk to her on Sunday...but when I saw her in school on Monday...I promptly walked up to her and reached down and held her hand as we walked to our next class. She later told me that she thought I had a lot of b@#ls for assuming what I did...but that was kind of how I rolled at 15...come to think of it...things haven't changed all that much in that regard. We dated through high school. We went to college together but she really didn't like her college experience so she left after her first semester and went to business school. We date throughout my undergraduate college years. I was accepted to Murray State University's Fishery Biology Dept for a Masters program. It meant leaving our hometown and heading out to Kentucky...so for the first time in 8 years we were apart. We stayed in touch while I was in graduate school...I was shocked when her father allowed her to come visit me for a week towards the end of my graduate program. It was during that week that we decided that when I finished grad school that I would come home and we would get married. After graduating from Murray with an MS in Fishery Biology...I was accepted to a doctoral program at Ohio State in Limnology (study of the chemical and physical properties of water)...the choice was 4 more years of Academics or go home and get married... Gerry had started working at the VA hospital in West Haven...and she wrote me about a young doctor who had asked her out...she had told him no...but, that was enough to shake my confidence...so home I went...tied the knot and it has been 37 glorious years with my high school sweet heart. We have two boys one is 30 and the other is 25... And, yes, we are the hit at our high school reunion, class of 1970, because we are the only couple who dated in high school who are still together.

Truth is I love her now more than I did then....

 

[huskeynut]

I first met my future wife in college in 1972. We were both sophomore music ed majors. I had transferred in from Kent State - yes, that one and I was there but that's another story. Beautiful, sexy girl with long red hair and an infectious smile. As music majors, we all hung out together and ate our meals together in the cafe. So we became good friends first.

She was taking a prep band class one semester and wanted to take up the trumpet, my instrument. I said I had a spare and would pick it up over the weekend when I went home. So Sunday night I came back with the horn, went to her dorm and gave it to her to use. It was easy to find her, she was working the desk. I did have another reason for going to her dorm that night. I was going to ask out a red headed nursing major (yes I like red heads!) who I had been hanging out with. Never got that far. We talked until it was time to lock the doors. Shortly after I asked her out and we went to a local spot that had live bands I knew in my hometown. Only about an hour's drive from the campus, so not too far but she was a little worried - she told me later. I found out that night she had a very sharp tongue and a very quick it - I got hammered. For some reason, it didn't phase me. She did tell me after that she was surprised I asked her out again. We continued to date and the house mothers in the dorm got used to me being there. Many a weekend night as she worked the late shift, I walked down to Taco Bell for our late night tacos and onion rings. We still laugh at those days! We were married in July of 1975.

This past year we celebrated our 38th anniversary together. We have three great sons (33, 30 & 27), two of whom are married and 2 great grandsons (5 & 2)! To this day I don't know how she has put up with me all these years. But I wouldn't trade any of them.

I am a very lucky man to have married a very sexy red head. And she's still the sexiest red head I know and love.

 

[ChicagoGG]

Meyers and Tomcat - glad for you that "Love is Lovelier the Second Time Around."

 

[ctmom04]

I met my husband back in 1991 while he was dating one of my best friends. After they had been dating for a couple of months I asked my girlfriend why she had not brought him around at all. Her answer was that we were perfect for each other and that she could see us getting married one day. In the coming weeks I met my future husband on one quick occasion and shortly after they broke up. Our friendship did not weather the storm either.

In the Spring of 1992 I ran into my husband and we began talking. Several months later we started dating. In 2003 my girlfriend's prediction became reality- we were married. In May we celebrated 10 years of marriage with our 4 beautiful children. Blessed and thankful everyday!

 

[Drumguy]

It was late winter of my first year at UConn law. During a particularly boring torts class, the guy sitting next to me, with whom I'd become friendly, leans over and asks if I want to go out with his cousin. I asked him what she looked like. He takes a sheet of paper (we still have it) and draws a stick figure with curly hair. Of course, Olive Oyl would intrigue anyone, so I said, sure. We made a dangerous plan. His cousin was a senior at BU (but lived near New Haven). My friend was engaged (irrelevant fact) and suggested that we double date in Boston, and stay overnight (nothing nasty). So it would be a two day blind date. Well, first appearances, his cousin was no Olive Oyl, but such a dead ringer for Ali McGraw, who was then hitting her height of fame, that for years, people would comment on how much my wife resembled Ali. So this seems great, right? Wrong. The first day was a disaster. She was sarcastic as could be - turns out she had had a bad break up several month earlier and had a low opinion of males at the time. I really wanted to avoid day 2, but after some zany events related to her immediate family which happened to be in Boston to visit her brother at Tufts, the ice was broken early the next day. We rarely missed a weekend after that, were engaged 9 months later, and married in another 9 months, before I started my last year of law school . 44 happy years later, the rest is history.

Regarding my wife's strong resemblance to Ali McGraw, I'll never forget sort of a funny incident at the law school. There had been some sort of cocktail reception for the students and dates. I was married by then and brought my wife. The next day, I'm sitting in the law school cafeteria when this guy I barely knew walked up to me and said "Hey, that chick you were with last night is hot. She looks just like Ali McGraw." I showed him my wedding band and informed him that the hot chick was my wife. He got totally flustered, and says "I really never liked Ali McGraw".

My wife as well bears an uncanny resemblance to Ali McGraw. A year ago I watched love story for the first time and had to stop it multiple times to call our kids in to see. And yes I got a few, is that Ali McGraw comments (Ali is actually about 12 - 15 years older than my wife)! Funny that Ali has 2 doppelgangers out there and their husbands are Boneyarders!