How old were your parents when they met?

In My Humble Opinion
21

They were 15. They were in the same homeroom in high school. (Oddly, they had lived across the alley from each other a few years before, but didn’t meet then.) They dated for a couple years, and became engaged a few months before my mother graduated, because she wanted to show off her engagement ring. They married two years later, and it lasted 42 years, until my father died.

This year would have been their 50th anniversary. Once, about 15-20 years ago, my dad asked me to go find a certain perfume for my mom for a Christmas gift. I looked everywhere, and was told it wasn’t made anymore. This year, I found it in some obscure catalog, so I bought it and sent it to her, along with the story of how my dad remembered the perfume she used to use, back when they were dating.

22

Mine were both 17 or 18: they met freshman year of college, at either orientation or registration (I don’t remember anymore). They married the summer after graduation, and divorced 17 years later.

23

My parents met in 1961, I’m pretty sure. Mom was 22 and Dad was 25; she was an exchange student (an American in Germany) and he was getting a degree in chemistry.

They were married a couple of years later. Monday will be their 42nd anniversary.

24

Mom was 19, dad was 24; they met in college. They married when he was 26 and she a fresh-faced 21. This year they celebrate their 40th anniversary.

25

My parents don’t remember each other before kindergarten, but my grandmothers tell me it’s possible they knew each other already. They were frien-emies as kids (Dad still has a piece of pencil lead in his arm where Mom stabbed him in eighth grade), and started dating when they were about 16. (The reason “December 1963” is one of Mom’s favorite songs.)

This was, of course, bad in some people’s eyes–mixed religions? gasp They were married in 1969, Grandma has gotten over the fact that mom’s a shiksa, and at this very moment, according to the e-mail I just got, they are sitting in the business center of the Warsaw Sheraton, trying to figure out which sign says “exit” so they can go sighseeing. :slight_smile:

26

My parents were married at 17(Mum) & 18(Dad). I don’t know at what age they met, but I would like to think they’d known each other for at least a week or two…

27

My parents were across the tracks from each other, in that mom’s family was factory workers/manual laborers and pop’s family had clawed themselves to lower-level white collar. Mom was Catholic and Pop non-Catholic Christian. But the biggest difference is Pop was fastidious like his mom and Mom is a slob. He says he should have known there was an issue when he would show up for a date and she would say she be ready in a minute, grab a shirt from a disorganized pile of (clean) laundry laying around and iron it up for the date.

28

Hmmm. They met in Jr. League - my dad was one or two years ahead of my mom in school (different schools, though). They got married after he went to college and joined the navy.

I think what I am getting at is that I don’t know.

29

My mother was 18 and my father was 28. They met at the county fair: he was running the Tilt-A-Whirl ride, and she was there with her family.

They got married about a year later.

30

I am also feeling a bit out of place here, and very, very foreign for once. My parents met on their wedding day, as far as I know. There would have been no way they would have met earlier.

31

my parents met at a house party in 1936, she was eighteen and he twenty eight. they dated for about six months before ther married. eighteen years later, my father passed away from hodgkins lymphoma. mom never dated another man, and cried every time she spoke of him until she passed away at the age of 82.

i have a picture of them, taken on their first date. i hope they have reunited where ever we end up.

32

They were 20 and 21. My Mom’s sister lived with my Dad’s friend, and they met at a party at their house. Apparently, Dad was in the closet (literally, not figuratively).

33

My mother was 16 and my dad was 20. My mother had a huge crush on him, but my dad refused to date her because he thought she was only 12 years old! (my mother was (and still is) 5’nothing, 100 and nothing pounds, with the face of a child - she’s 48 today and still not a wrinkle to be seen). She kept hanging out with him with her friend (who also had a crush on him… hee) and they got to know each other better. He thought she was pretty mature for a “12 year old”, but refused to date her until she produced a birth certificate. She did. Finally he relented. They were married two years later. They’ve been happily married for 30 years. Though, admittedly, many people give them odd looks, as my father is 6’2 and aging as he should be - balding, grey hair, his brief fight with cancer has left him looking a touch more haggard than before… and my mother - teeny, short, childlike face… looks like he’s “robbing the cradle”, as they say. But she’s only four years younger than him!

34

24 and 22, I think. Introduced by their mothers, who were social acquaintances and both recently widowed.

35

Please don’t feel out of place. I don’t know you, but I am assuming your parents’ marriage was arranged. Would you be comfortable posting more? I would be fascinated by their experience, as it is so different from my own.

36

They met at work. My mom was 20 and my dad was 26.

37

Mom: 21. Dad: 23

38

Dad was 44, Mom was 35. Here’s the story:

In 1954, Les (Dad) was visiting his dentist, a certain Dr. DeCrife. Dr. D was kidding Les about being a confirmed bachelor in his 40s, and pointed out his hygenist, a comely young lady in her mid 30s named Adele. “You know, Les, Adele and you would sure make a great couple!” “Yeah, Doc, and if you’d mind your own business, this world would be a better place,” Les joked right back.

Dr. D tried to get Adele interested in Les. Adele was three times married and divorced, childless, and had come to the conclusion that she would never get married again.

One day, Les called Dr. D to find out about some bridge work that he was having done. Les and Dr. D chatted for a minute, then the crafty dentist said: “Hold on a minute, Les, I think Adele wanted to talk to you”.

Dr. D then went in the lab where Adele was working, and said, “Adele, Les is on the phone. I think he wants to ask you out!”

Hilarity, of course, ensued, Les and Adele went out, and were married on July 22, 1956. I came along in 1958, and my little sister in 1961.

Dad died 6 months shy of their 40th anniversary. Mom’s still going at 86.

39

Mine were 18 when they met, 20 when they married. They’ve been married 33 years.

40

Dad was 21, Mom was 20. He was a senior at Yale, she was a junior at Conneticut College, both were middle-class Jewish kids from New Jersey, and both were active in the antiwar movement (they were from that special subset of 60’s type who embraced the counterculture and still managed to get excellent grades). Dad’s best friend was dating a friend of Mom’s, and one of them had the idea to set them up on a blind date. They married before the school year was out, and they’ve been married for 35 years.