# How Did Your Parents Meet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 1, 2013, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316 "2013-07-01T04:17:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/61 "2013-07-01T21:43:45Z")
Summer stock production of _Dracula._ My dad was Renfield, my mom was Mina. When it was time for Mina to die off-stage, she needed to make convincing choking sounds, so my dad choked her. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/62 "2013-07-01T21:53:15Z")
My dad’s company transferred him from California to New Jersey. My wife was one of the secretaries at his new office. According to her, the first day he walked in she told her co-worker that she was going to marry him. They got engaged on their second or third date. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/63 "2013-07-01T22:17:47Z")
Fairly typical story for the time, I suppose, which was around the end of WWII in 1945. My father was back from serving in the Merchant Marine, so he was probably wearing his uniform as some kind of junior Engineer (I think that’s a non-com rank, but I’m not sure - anyway, his cap has a bit of scrambled egg on it). He was around 23, and had already been married and divorced, with a child who had died of SIDS. My mother was around 20, and probably working somewhere as a secretary. My picture of her is that she was very innocent and inexperienced, which is what my father would have been looking for after his first wife (who he described to me as an alcoholic nymphomaniac, which probably meant that she got drunk at least once and slept with at least one other guy while they were married). My father told me that they met at a dance. They had grown up in rival small towns in NW Oregon, but had never met while in school (too much age difference, and my father had been too poor to go to any other towns). When he originally left the area in 1940my mother would have only been 15. I don’t have any other details about what happened after they met, except that they were married early the next year. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Phila444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba8739/32.png) [@Phila444](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phila444)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/64 "2013-07-01T22:38:39Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > They met at a party. _yawn_ Mine too ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/65 "2013-07-01T22:42:20Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > My dad’s company transferred him from California to New Jersey. My \*\*wife \*\*was one of the secretaries at his new office. According to her, the first day he walked in she told her co-worker that she was going to marry him. > > They got engaged on their second or third date. [My bold] MAJOR Freudian slip there. :eek: The shrink can work you in this afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/66 "2013-07-01T22:48:14Z")
Mutual friend threw a party and invited them both. The rest is history. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/67 "2013-07-01T23:03:41Z")
> [@evasgram](#): > > This starts out depressing, but the outcome was great. My dad had a massive heart attack at 36 years old, when I was 6 years old. One of his nurses was very nice and took good care of him in CCU. Mom and dad were happy together and the nurse was very professional, everything on the up and up. > > Fast forward 5 years later. Now mom is dying of breast cancer. One of her visiting nurses turned out to be the same nice nurse that took care of dad in the hospital. They all remembered each other and again everything was proper and good. Unfortunately, mom died after about a year. > > A year later, dad goes to get his flu shot, and guess who the nurse was to give it to him? You got it, same nice nurse! Dad asked her out and they eventually married. They were together until dad died about 10 years ago. She is still my “second mom” and I love her very much! What a lovely story. Not too many people can say they had two great moms. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/68 "2013-07-01T23:08:50Z")
blind date in college. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/69 "2013-07-02T00:32:53Z")
My parents grew up in the same small Ohio town. My dad always says that he decided he was going to marry that girl when he was in the 6th grade, she was in the 4th and they rode the same school bus. I don’t know much about their dating history- I do know that my mom dated at least one other guy in high school. My parents got married by a Justice of the Peace one week after my mom graduated from high school- her parents did _not_ approve of the marriage. They eventually decided my dad was okay after he worked a full-time night job and attended college during the day, getting an engineering degree (and a good job). They celebrated their 45th anniversary with a white-water rafting trip. Three weeks ago they celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/70 "2013-07-02T00:54:01Z")
My father was a Marine 1stLt who was in charge of the security detachment at No Such Agency at Fort Meade, MD while it was being built in the 50’s, and my mom worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (not a spy) when they were in an old roller skating rink in Foggy Bottom (obviously prior to Langley). He had reason to pass by her desk as part of his duties. They ended up as opposite corners of a double date, and my dad’s date commented about how lovely his hands were (he was a hard-charging Marine) so that kinda took the air out of that end of the date. Next date he took her out. ---
**Author:** ![PoorMarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b5ac83/32.png) [@PoorMarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorMarie)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/71 "2013-07-02T01:29:59Z")
My mother was taking a ship across the Atlantic to NYC, the last leg in her journey escaping persecution from Nazi Germany. My father was on the same ship. He was French. His father was American, had fought in WW1, fell in love with a local French girl in Britanny, married her, and stayed. My father’s dad died but when my father turned 18, he left France to make his life in America. They met while my mother was tapping out some songs on a piano on the ship. They were married for twenty-three years, at which time they were divorced. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/72 "2013-07-02T02:03:29Z")
At a Detroit VFW Veterans Day party in 1965 when my dad was home on leave from the Navy; got engaged after Christmas and married June 3. Brother came along 9 months later, me 3 years and 9 months later. Dad used money he’d saved for a Harley on Mom’s wedding set instead and once in awhile would reach over and twist them like he was revving a motorcycle. They’re still kicking and still together. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/73 "2013-07-02T03:58:19Z")
My parents met at a party in Los Angeles, when they were both living there, in the early 1960s. My father was a sales rep for a company which made printing presses for newspapers; my mother was a stewardess for United Airlines. They hit it off, in part because they quickly discovered that they were both transplants from Wisconsin (my father from Green Bay, my mother from a town just north of Milwaukee). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/74 "2013-07-02T04:39:11Z")
She was new in town, attending Normal School (teacher’s school). He was local, attending Business School. On January 3rd, 1957, Mom and my aunt took a neighbor child to see the Nativities around town; the circuit was pretty much set: the one at Escolapios was the evident best and therefore saved for last, you started from the one farthest and spiraled closer. They almost ran over two tall guys as they left the first place. Then they almost managed to run into each other again in the next place. And the next. By the fourth place they were expecting each other. One of the two guys had liked my aunt, so instead of going into Escolapios they followed the two brunettes for a block, and another block, and then 😕 They’d disappeared! (They’d gotten home, as they lived three blocks from Escolapios) The two guys spent much of the rest of Christmas vacation plotting ways to find information about the two unknown girls (unknwown, in a town where “everybody knew each other”!), but they were spared any further work because Normal and Business schools happened to share a building: Normal lessons took place in the morning, Business in the afternoon and, when he crossed her on the street, Dad recognized one of the prototeachers as being the girl who’d been going to see Nativities with that other girl his pal had liked. What started as a double-pairing for the friend and my aunt ended up becoming 7 years of courtship and 32 of marriage for my parents. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/75 "2013-07-02T05:57:32Z")
> [@Barking\_Dog](#): > > My mom ran my dad over while he was riding his bike to class at University of Texas. Did they kiss at the “Enchantment Under The Sea” dance? My parents both worked at the same Hospital. They each had mutual friends that they were initially going out with, and then somewhere along the line they ended up together. My Dad was considerably older than my Mum (married at ages 35 and 21 respectively, in the year 1964) and they were together for 19 years when my Dad died at the relatively young age of 54 (when I was 14). My Mum never remarried, and is now 70. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/76 "2013-07-02T10:07:11Z")
Grammar School, he was [Dux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dux#Education), she was Head Girl (or whatever the equivalent was back then). They’re still together after umm, about 46 years of marriage and four kids! ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/77 "2013-07-02T12:38:58Z")
My parents met on a double date. Mom was with the other guy and Dad was with the other girl, but Mom and Dad really hit it off. They were engaged a month later and married 4 months after that. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/78 "2013-07-02T12:43:25Z")
My parents met at a Singles Square Dance Class. It was the first time they’d gone for both of them. ---
**Author:** ![LaurenIpsum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@LaurenIpsum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LaurenIpsum)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/79 "2013-07-02T12:59:17Z")
My parents lived in the same general area, although my dad went to an all-boys school so they did not meet in high school. At some point when she was a teenager, my mom was walking down the street with a friend, who pointed out my dad some distance away. “Oh that’s Joe. He’s kind of hoody\*, but he’s cute.” \*As in, “kind of a hood,” simply because he wore a leather jacket. This was in the 1950s. My sister has a more interesting story. She had gone to a bar with a friend. Meanwhile, there were two guys at the bar, and one of them wanted to meet my sister’s friend. So he asked his friend to talk to my sister, freeing up her friend for him to hit on. His friend and my sister have now been married over 10 years. ---
**Author:** ![geneb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e4f/32.png) [@geneb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geneb)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316/80 "2013-07-02T16:55:07Z")
My dad’s brother met my mom in a bar and invited her to a cookout. My dad was there as well and my parents hit it off right away. They had a fairly terrible relationship for the next 20ish years (despite the fact that they both loved each other very, very much and were very devoted to each other), but for the past 10 years or so they have really calmed down and been enjoying their time together. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-your-parents-meet/662316.md?page=5)