BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: ranger1
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 10:38 AM

The Jay-boy and I aren't married, but are almost seven years into a domestic partnership. I met him on a Friday night at a bar while listening to the house Irish band. He was reading a book, I was curious what he could be reading that was so fascinating that he could concentrate on it despite the din and crush of people around him. So I asked (it was a Patrick O'Brien novel, if anyone was wondering). Several months later, he casually asked me what I was doing the next day. I told him: "nothing much, probably just laundry. Why?" He said: "wanttodosomethingtomorrowsomethingwithmenotreallyadate?" (yes, no spaces or punctuation anywhere in the sentence!) And he was looking out the window intently at the dark when he said it. I liked this guy okay, and saying no would have been like kicking a puppy. So I said "sure, why not." He was in a state of shock for a few seconds because he didn't think I'd say yes. We then decided on a trip to a maritime museum up the coast aways. I was late (as usual), and he was sure I'd finked out at the last minute. We had a great time and made a second date to go for a walk. I showed up minus my dog, and he made me go back for Clancy. Then we realize that we have the same three favorite poets. Our fledgeling romance survived several months of a long-distance relationship, and four months of living with his mother. We signed up with the city's domestic partnership registry when it started, and are as happy now as when we first started seeing each other.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 06:16 PM

Outside the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School for Girls in Islington, London.. Micca introduced us... it's all his fault.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 05:56 PM

Some great stories here... keep 'em coming..

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 05:54 PM

Flatmate of a girl on the same university course as my flatmate.

Present partner had become a regular dance partner as we generally turned up at the same events alone and just got better from there.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 04:44 PM

I met Geoff in the Tap and Spile in Whitby at the end of folk week. One year later he proposed in the same pub, one year after that we got married in Whitby and had the reception in the Tap and Spile, the following year we bought the twins just 2 weeks old and had a naming party in the same pub. hey were actually three weeks prem otherwise we could have been giving birth in the pub!

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 01:20 PM

Alan C:

GREAT story!! congratulations to you both.


A

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Mooh
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 01:08 PM

Pinery Provincial Park (Ontario Canada). We met, fell in love, got married two years later (it'll be 21 years on the 14th) have two kids, two cars, two pets, two careers, but one marriage. She was 17 and I was 24 when we met.

The age difference (and my religion, occupation and beard) really bothered her mother who hasn't seen us since before the wedding and doesn't know about her grandchildren. My family totally accepts each other's choices so there's never been any problems on my side.

I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Vixen
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:29 PM

The Vanilla Bean is a very nifty place--it's where Routes 44, 169, and 97 meet, so it's VERY easy to find, since Pomfret, albeit small, is mostly empty woods and pastures and fields, so there are few landmarks. Check it out at www.vanillabeancafe.com.

V

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Allan C.
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:24 PM

I may have told this tale elsewhere, but enjoy the opportunity to tell it again.

I met Carmen during the first day of my senior year of high school. When I arrived at the Biology I classroom, the only vacant seat was next to her. I remember that I could hardly believe that I would have the good fortune to be sitting next to such a beautiful girl. Carmen turned out to be friendly as well as very intelligent. I got to know her better as we shared microscopes and dissections as lab partners. I�m not sure at what point I began to visit Carmen at her home. I can only remember visiting just a few times, surely less than a dozen. I recall that we talked a lot about things to do with playing guitar, but I�m sure we talked about many other things as well. I feel sure that I would have dated Carmen if this had been possible. However, her parents were firmly against Carmen�s dating anyone. I suppose it was largely because of this that things between us remained on a platonic level.

After one or two visits Carmen announced that she was going to tape record some of my songs. From that point on, every visit was marked by a brief recording session. Carmen would set up her father�s reel-to-reel recorder and would tape a single song each time. After the first or second taping, Carmen announced that she had gotten a brand new tape that she would reserve just for me. I remember feeling extremely flattered that she would want to do this.

Shortly after I graduated, the war in Vietnam heated up. The Draft was dogging me. Carmen was aware that I had attempted to join the Peace Corps to avoid the Draft, hoping that by doing so I might avoid having to kill anyone. It was at about this time that I lost track of Carmen. Things started moving very quickly. The Secretary of State suddenly demanded 64,00 more troops. To me, this was a clear sign that I had best do something drastic right away. Therefore, I joined the Air Force and within short order was on my way to boot camp in Texas.

Close to forty years later I happened to be visiting my good friend, Barbara, a former high school classmate. So now there I was, sitting in Barbara�s kitchen, sipping a cup of coffee and wondering out loud what had happened to Carmen after I joined the Air Force. Barbara smiled at me and said, �Well, let�s just find out! I have a directory from the school. I�ll bet she is listed.� To my amazement, Barbara produced a volume in which were contained the names, addresses, phone numbers and even email addresses of hundreds of alumni of our school. Carmen�s listing was among them.

I wrote a short email to Carmen, doubting that the address would still be viable and doubting even more that I would receive an answer. To my surprise, Carmen responded almost immediately! This was followed by a rapid exchange of emails and then a few days later I was actually speaking with her by phone. It was an amazing experience to talk with her after nearly forty years. We attempted to fill in some of the many blanks as to what had happened to each of us during that long gap. Carmen seemed delighted that I was still very much involved in folk music. She also enjoyed learning of my recent travels. It was during this portion of the conversation that I realized that the Getaway would be taking place only a few miles from where Carmen now lived. To my amazement, Carmen offered to come to the Getaway in order for us to see one another face to face. Thrilled, I made arrangements for her ticket and lodging.

The morning finally came when Carmen arrived at the Getaway. I was seated on a bench near the parking lot where I excitedly waited.
Carmen looked at me quizzically for a moment. I shouted, �Yes! Yes! I�m Allan!� Seconds later I held Carmen in my arms. I can�t describe how that felt without using the word, �magic�. Even though I had never kissed Carmen so long ago, I wanted to kiss her now - and, strangely, thought I saw the same idea within her eyes. (I later learned that I had intuited correctly.) However, we each turned our heads aside at the last moment and simply held one another tightly for what felt like at least a full minute. Forty years! God it was good to see Carmen again!

The details of the months that followed are for telling in a different venue. Suffice it to say that one week before Christmas Carmen accepted a beautiful silver and gold bracelet, (made by Mudcat's Don Meixner,) as a token of my love for her and my wish to marry her. We were married the following February.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:21 PM

I met her at the print shop next door to my office. She had a part time job there. When it came time for college I pursued her to Northwestern.
When it came time to propose I thought it best to let enough coincidences be my guide. That weekend played pinball and tied at 6,979,442. We ended up at Girodano's pizza where my parents met. Then when she asked if I wanted to go for a horse and carriage ride around the city I said "maybe if someone gives us a coupon". We rounded the corner and someone gave us a coupon. Strike three, I was hooked.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:17 PM

Congratulations, Vixen.

Pomfret, eh? I've driven through Pomfret.... It's even smaller than Derby, from what I remember..

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Vixen
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 09:52 AM

Well, some of you have heard the song we wrote about it...

Twas a Friday in September,
the night we first met;
You were singin' 'bout rain in a little cafe.
I was lonely, cold and wet.

Cho:
Everybody's got something to talk about
Everybody's got their own thing to do
I'm just standing in the middle of my life
Thinkin' 'bout me and you.

Well, I grabbed my guitar when it came my turn,
But I didn't know what to say,
So I sang about the bridges I'd burned
How I learned along the way.

And when I looked up, I nearly died
I got such a big surprise
You were singin' my words along with me
And laughin' into my eyes

No you never know what's up ahead
Can't see what's around the bend
And you never know when a stranger's face
will turn into a friend.

The 8th Anniversary gig is Friday, 2 September, Vanilla Bean Cafe, Pomfret, CT! (though we just got married 367 days ago!)

V

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Flash Company
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 09:52 AM

On a 'bus going to Shrewsbury Flower Show. That was 1974, married in May 1976, still can't believe my luck!

FC

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: John P
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 09:35 AM

When Anna moved to Seattle, I was the first person she met. I was working in a little shop in the Pike Place Market and she wandered in on her first day in town and saw some pictures of medieval scenes on the wall. She was looking for someone to play medieval music with and asked me if I knew about anything like that. I was, at the time, directing a medieval and Renaissance consort. She joined, and later she and I quit to form the duet act we were for many years.

The first social event she and I were both at was my marriage to my ex-wife. There's a great picture of my ex and myself in our wedding finery with Anna (who is quite tall) looming up behind Karen (who is quite short). Very wierd.

John Peekstok

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 12 Jul 05 - 12:04 AM

The local cop told her I wasn't as bad as I looked.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 10:44 PM

Ahhhhh, there was a cool coffee shop in Leesburg where they had an old' time roaster and the atmospere and coffee were at the highest of levels... Deon, the owner and a good friend, hired high school seniors and I'd get to know them and wish them well as they went off to college... But one day I walked in and there was a not-a-high-school-senior lady who taught some kinda wierd music to kids that she called "Orff" music...

Well, my late wife, Judy, had jus' died from breast cancer and I wasn't really lookin' but over the next couple o' months this woman and I talked music, education, politics and finally, when we got around to Faith and discovered that we were both heavily in into Christain beliefs, the deal was sealed...

I thank the Big Guy every day fir the P-Vine...

Sniff...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 10:28 PM

I was 29 years old. I didn't want to have anything more to do with men or with dating. A guy came up to me and asked, "Have you seen Jeremiah Johnson?" I didn't know that Jeremiah Johnson was a movie, so I answered "No. I know a Jim Johnson. Is that who you mean?"

When I realized my mistake, I was too discombobulated to get out of a date. That was 30 years ago. We still haven't seen Jeremiah Johnson.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: frogprince
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 09:19 PM

A classmate and I in Chicago (1960-1963) became life-long friends. He married one of our distaff classmates in '64. I spent some years here, some years there, and we got together at least every few years. In the summer of '82 I dropped in on them for a couple of days of my vacation. I was then living in Chicago again, They had been settled in Michigan for years.

As it happened, he knew he was "booked up" for the last evening I would be there; so he decided it was his responsibility to see that I wasn't left to sit and read that night. Enter, a young lady of their acquantance from church. She hesitantly agreed to at least feed me dinner. I hesitantly went along to be introduced; old classmate has been a darn good friend, but I was frankly wary of what his idea of a blind date for me might be.

Dinner, a movie, miniature golf; a hesitant try for a little parting kiss which far exceeded expectation; some phone calls, some trips between Chicago and Michigan; engagement on Memorial Day Weekend, marriage in December. A house full of collectable frogs, 22 1/2 years, no regrets.

                Dean the frogprince.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: LilyFestre
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 07:44 PM

My husband and I met at a college picnic. It's amazing that we ever met because neither of us like those kinds of gatherings. It was the first day of my senior year and the first day of my husband's freshman year.
   
    My friend begged and pleaded, "Please Chell...c'mon, it'll be fun. I want to see if so and so is there and if blah blah blah is still with you know who...yadda, yadda, yadda. We'll only stay for an hour, I PROMISE." Okay...Okay...I'll go.

    There is NO way on God's green earth that my husband would have attended this event if his roommate (who he had just met an hour before) hadn't told him it would be the best food he'd get all year (didn't take the roommate long to peg him..LOL).

    So, to make a long story short, my friend and I walked up to the quad and I saw the back of him standing by the grill. He turned around, our eyes met and that was it.

    My friend, true to her word, was ready to go in an hour...I was not. I hadn't spoken a word to him, didn't even know his name. I asked around and finally found out who his roommate was. As it turns out, they were having a party later. I promptly invited myself. *G* My friend and I went home and later arrived at the party. He and I sat side by side, holding hands and soon decided to go somewhere a little more quiet where we could talk and that's just what we did.

   What happened next was really kind of funny. We were talking and he said that he was interested in environmental issues, especially things to do with fresh water. I knew of a lake not far away...kind of off the beaten path, so we hopped in the car and off we went. As it turns out, it was pitch black out...no stars...no moon and we couldn't see the water until I drove right up to it...LOL.

We were engaged a little over 2 months later and married 10 months and 10 days later....that was 13 years ago. :)

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Chris Green
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 07:42 PM

At a mediaeval banquet. We were both working - she was Maid Marian, I was a minstrel. Somehow the class divide was breached!

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: kendall
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 07:41 PM

Right here on the Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 07:30 PM

At church, where I sang in the choir. A retired armoured corps captain (the People's Warden) seized me by the elbow and towed me over to meet the new guy in the congregation, saying, "You two should meet. He's an legal officer [to me] and she used to be a meathead" [to him].

(For those not in the know, a meathead is a member of the Military Police, in which corps I lasted just long enough for the Canadian Forces to find out about my lousy eyesight and make me a medic. They'll make you one, too, if you give them the wool. Ta dum *ting*.)

Of course, he was promptly posted to Germany and I married Mr. Wrong! Fortunately, neither situation lasted for ever.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 07:11 PM

Queens ice skating rink, in London, Nov 1959.

I was this eighteen year old smartass, all mouth and hormones, but a reasonably good skater, and when she made a crash landing right at my feet, I took the p*ss out of her quite unmercifully.

She just laughed and rejoined her friends.

Then I lost adhesion on a turn and ended upside down against the wall. There she was, of course, and for five minutes I had to take it on the chin.

After a long engagement we married, and the rest as they say is history. Forty years of history, and she still gives as good as she gets, if not better.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 06:55 PM

On leave, before going to Korea. We barely talked; she thought I was being weird and she was right. When I got back I was invited to a party to celebrate the moving of her apartment -- I left with her roommate. Later I switched (on a ferry boat across the Mississippi) and I've been with her ever since. (The roommate married a nice guy and is still married to him, 32 years this fall -- just like me.)

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: sixtieschick
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 06:33 PM

I was so busy thinking through the question and composing an answer on the other thread that I didn't see that Jerry had created a new one. So sorry, y'all, that the first paragraph is a repeat that probably doesn't deserve an encore edition.

I met and married my first husband in first grade. The solemn ceremony took place on the sidewalk under a flowering cherry tree. I wore my best white dotted swiss dress and patent leather mary janes. A doll presided, and our combined collection of teddy bears acted as witnesses.

Eighteen years later I was working as a cook in a hotel in Switzerland. I was in the main elevator in my chef's whites, hairnet, sensible shoes and huge apron smeared with tomato sauce when the other occupant started talking to me. We chatted casually for about 10 minutes. The next day he showed up during my break, ushered me out to the veranda with a sweeping view of the Alps and proposed, bended knee, ring and all. I told him he was out of his mind and never to speak to me again. Six months after that...

Neither marriage lasted, but I am still friends with my first grade hubby.

M.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: artbrooks
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 06:32 PM

Folk dancing, at college ("university", for the UKers). We started off in opposite directions, mass met miss, I knocked her on her lovely butt, and it's now 35 1/2 years.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 06:22 PM

I didn't. ;-) I have met many friends and partners along the way.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: CarolC
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 05:54 PM

( ...not the source of WYSIWYG's line, but where I met my husband)

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: CarolC
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 05:49 PM

Right here in the Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 05:47 PM

Well, I met my wife at a party, then she had the sex change and I met HIM in recovery. :~) "You can hardly see the join."*

*Ten points to the first to name the source of that line.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 05:47 PM

I'd have to let her answer that...I don't think a man could do justice to all the complexities, and I'd get something wrong...

suffice it to say that a lady I'd been seeing introduced us and dropped 'suggestions'....and since we knew many of the same folkie venues, it just sorta worked out. 25 years worth of 'worked out'

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 05:45 PM

I know two couples who married after, in each case, the man had literally picked up the hitchhiking woman. I especially like the story of the one couple. They were so smitten with each other they could scarcely talk!

Subject: RE: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: GUEST,Skipy
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 05:41 PM

Cambridge folk festival 1984
Skipy

Subject: BS: How Did You Meet Your Wife/Husband?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 05:37 PM

This thread is inspired by comments from sixtieschick in the Personal Adds thread. If you asked fifty people, you'd probably get fifty different answers. That's why it's so difficult to set about finding a loving mate. You just never know where you're going to find them.

For me, I had decided that I would never find a woman I'd want to marry, even though I wasn't cynical or bitter about a nightmarish first marriage. I figured I'd just move to Rockford, Illinois when I retired, buy a little house and sit out on the front porch at night playing my banjo. Didn't sound half bad, actually. A Hell of a lot better than my first marriage.

Through a series of completely unlikely occurances in my life, I found myself moving from a Scandinavian heritage Lutheran Church to a black Baptist church across the street. I didn't know more than a half a dozen people there, and those only very casually. After I'd started going there for a couple of months, I started going to bible study on Wednesday nights. I had to leave immediately after the class because it was practice night for my group, so there was no time to socialize with anyone. There was a very aggressive woman in the class who told everyone else that they couldn't sit next to me because "he's mine!" I had never gone out with her, and had no intention of it, but she was a very outspoken woman, and the other women didn't want to tangle with her, so there was always a seat open next to me.

Most Wednesday nights, there was this beautiful woman who always arrived late. She worked in a store and even though she tried to get to class on time, she was usually held up and arrived after the class had started. And of course, all the seats were taken. Except one.
Not realizing that I was already "claimed," she always sat next to me. I introduced myself to her and managed to get in a word or two, but because she came after class started and I had to leave the minute it finished, there was no real way to get to know her. But, after awhile I discovered that she was deeply committed to visiting people in hospitals, nursing homes, and who were confined to their own homes. That's something I'd done much of my life and when she mentioned it, I told her I'd love to go with her some time.

So, the first time we went out, we went to a hospital to visit two people neither of us had ever met, and then went to the home of a woman who was in her upper 90's and bed-ridden. After that, I took her out to supper, and hopped aboard the Loveland Express.

Talk about a pickup line... "Hey baby, you want to go visit an old sick woman in a hospital with me?" Somehow, I have a feeling that wouldn't work on everyone. But, because it was a sincere question with only a little tinge of ulterior motive, it opened a door that will never be closed.

Along the line, I'll tell how my parents met... ended up writing a song about it because I thought it was so humorous..

Jerry