“Freshman Camp”, just before things started really winding up for our first year of college. As a Yankee, I was a distinct minority among the large majority of North Carolina natives in the group.
We were introducing ourselves around and I told someone I was from Pennsylvania. “You’re from Pennsylvania? Wow - he’s from New Jersey!” as she introduced me to the other furriner in our small group.
This was literally within 24 hours of arriving at college. We discovered some common interests (science fiction and bad puns) and the rest is history.
At college, I was behind her waiting in line to register for classes. I started talking, she gave me the stink-eye, I kept talking.
We hung out in the same “crowd” during college. Her opinion of me during the first two years of college varied day-to-day from bemused tolerance to open hostility. Things warmed up my senior year. We were married a little later. It’ll be 13 years next April.
Plaza Drugs at Ponce & North Highland, Atlanta, GA.
Back in those days, the only way to get tix was from the venue itself, or authorized outlets with “computers” that were somehow “linked” to the main office somewhere. Here in Atlanta, that meant Turtles Records, a now-defunct record store chain.
Tickets went on sale at 9am Saturday, so I showed up at 4pm on Friday. I was second in line. As more people came and lined up, we all agreed that we needed a system to keep order, especially when 9am rolled around. We got a notebook from the drugstore, and assigned everyone in line a number. As more people arrived, they came and got a number from me. My wife showed up after midnight with a GF, and had to come get a number. She was as cute as could be, and I must have been as well. We hit it off, started dating the next day, and the rest is history.
That was 25 years ago next month.
Possibly interesting footnote:
I was living with a girl at the time.
We parted amicably and remained friends.
Many years later, she married and purchased a house on my uncle’s street.
We subsequently married and purchased my uncle’s house.
We now live 10 houses away, our 1st sons are 1 month apart and BFF.
Been that way for 15 years.
In college, at church. I didn’t want to date anyone (though I thought he was cute), so he had to be subtle. He walked me home a lot, and our first official date was hot dogs at Top Dog. We were very poor, so there was a lot of walking. He had his mind made up in a couple of weeks, but was smart enough not to say that.
He wanted me to meet his parents, but the only opportunity was at a family reunion. Guys, do not make your girlfriend meet your parents at a family reunion. His mom dropped hints about weddings the whole time. (They were very anvil-y hints.)
His senior prom. I went with a mutual friend of ours. He went with his first ever girlfriend. We were friends for the next seven years in the same social circle…best friends for the next three…then we shacked up and we’ve been married fourteen.
During the eleven years we were friends, we were simultaneously single once for twenty minutes - we were even in the same place! But didn’t manage to get together for another six years.
I knew the first time we met he was “datable” - but its a good thing we didn’t date when we were seventeen - that would have been a disaster.
It was a setup. I had an old college buddy who had gotten married and lived nearby. He also had a married sister, who I also new, and those two couples used to hang out with me and my roommate (another college buddy).
The two women (my friend’s wife, and his sister) took it upon themselves to find wives for me and my roommate. For me, they picked my friend’s cousin who lived 850 miles away.
I declined for a long time, but they wouldn’t leave me alone about her. One night my friend’s wife said to me “Skammer, I promise you, if you just e-mail her, you guys will get married!”
Well that was obviously preposterous. So the next day, just to prove her wrong, I e-mailed the cousin. “This is silly and awkward, but …” blah, blah. She wrote me back the next day.
After three weeks we were talking on the phone daily. After two months I was flying out to see her every other weekend. After four months we were engaged, and less than eleven months after that first email, we were married. Just had our ninth anniversary.
On the steps of his dorm during that period between moving in and classes starting our freshman year. I was waiting for an elevator in my dorm and started chatting with the girl next door, who it turned out I’d been at a summer program with a year or so back. We were both heading to the bookstore, so we decided to go together, but as we walked out the door she mentioned that we had to stop and pick up a friend of hers from home (and make him tote our books for us.) “He’s a great guy,” she said. “You’ll love him.” Blonde is frequently wrong, but when she’s right, she’s right.
I didn’t know he was The One right away, or even the first year or two we were together. But, and this sounds weird, I did have this immediate and very strong sense that we were going to be friends before he ever even opened his mouth. I’ve never gotten that sort of feeling about anyone before or sense–it was just this almost instinctive gut feeling that I can’t explain. Some combination of the three of us were together pretty much all the time pretty much from then on.
It was a while before we started dating, even though that first night the three of us went out to dinner and Blonde suddenly shook her fork at me and announced, “You two ought to go out. You’d be perfect together.” As I said, when she’s right, she’s right. But I still think it was an inappropriate thing to say in the middle of a conversation about his girlfriend.
I met my late husband here on the Dope. Rick was in England, I was in Detroit, MI. He said he had a Yorkshire accent and it was all over from there. Actually, we started emailing and IMing and I was determined to find him a nice, young English girl. Then I started falling for him, and the English girl was forgotten. Three months later, I went to England to meet him, and we were married about a year after that.
My friend was dating her friend. I was out with friends at a bar. My friend’s girlfriend called up my future wife and told her to come on out to the bar for some fun. She very reluctantly showed up at the bar where we were introduced.
At the time, I was quite tired of the dating scene and had been on many first dates that went nowhere. I wasn’t interested in conservatives, apolitical people, or beating around the bush. So, when we sat down to chat, my first question to her was, “What are your thoughts on abortion?”
We had a good conversation and it went from there.
On a blind date. One of his friends was shacked up with one of my friends and they decided we were made for each other. So finally we both gave in to the incessant nagging. I thought he was arrogant and self involved – but cute. He thought I was bossy and opinionated – but cute. We each swore never to take that friend up on a blind date offer again as that date really sucked.
So of course we had to get married. No, really. A couple months later we ran into each other by happenstance at a large party, went home together afterward and never looked back.
Funny thing is, we were right the first time – I still think he is arrogant and self involved. He still thinks I am bossy and opinionated. Only somehow we later noticed other things (besides the attractiveness factor I mean. Though without that initial attraction I doubt we would have gotten anywhere the second time around either).
Another blind date. We were both about six month out of college, and he was working with a woman at my church. I really wasn’t interested in a relationship, but she nagged me into meeting him. Love at first sight. Six months later we were engaged, a year later married – 21 years and going strong.
At a WorldCon in Boston. It was the 50th anniversary of the first WorldCon, and the first really big science fiction convention I’d attended. I bought a membership for the whole thing. Didn’t see people I knew who were there, but I ran into Pepper Mill and her sister at the opening ceremonies, then kept running into them (they were an inseparable set) constantly throughout the convention. When we parted for the last time, she kissed me “so I’d remember her”.
At a singles dance. He asked me to dance about halfway into the evening. We hit it off immediately and were engaged very quickly after that. I joke that I’ve never had a boyfriend. I didn’t date much before him and we sort of skipped right from “person I’ve dated a few times” to “fiance”.
It’s been more than 16 years since that night. We’re very happy.
According to his profile, he liked a lot of the same bands I did, read a lot of the same books I did, and generally had a lot of similar interests.
It also said he could dance… so I promptly wrote him an email asking “So can you really dance? Or is it just the usual white boy shuffle?”
He wrote back, and we just hit it off from there. By the time we went on our first date a couple of months later, I knew there was a very good chance he’d be The One. We haven’t gotten around to the whole getting-married part of things, but we both know we’ll get there eventually…
Playing softball. I was on one field, while he was on another. I kept meandering over to watch him hit. He intentionally kept hitting balls out of the park to keep me interested. We dated but soon parted. I was 18.
In the interim, he got married and had a son. I got engaged. We didn’t keep in touch.
Then over another softball game (I was scorekeeping, he was playing), we hooked up again. He was going through a divorce and I was still single. That time we got together and never came apart.
Soon we got married on a softball field (in between games of a tournament we won) and it’s now been 17 years total. This chick still digs the long ball I guess.
Not much of a story. She came to watch my band at a club where I was playing. She was sitting with some people I knew. I sat down at her table and hit on her a little between sets. I got her phone number and called her a few days later – asked her out – here we are.
We became aware of each other in MPSIMS, then met face to face at a ChiDope, then had a weekend date in Key West where we were together ON PURPOSE a few months later. I canceled dates with my other women after Day 2 of that weekend.
Actually, we started emailing and IMing and I was determined to find him a nice, young English girl. Then I started falling for him, and the English girl was forgotten. Three months later, I went to England to meet him, and we were married about a year after that.