How I Met Your Father

by Deanna

Since the inception of this collaborative blog we have all revealed pieces and parts of our lives.  Most of us have talked about our children, our grandchildren, our likes, sometimes our dislikes, our love of photography, our love of nature, our habits both good and bad, and the food we love.  But today I want to tell you a story of how I met my husband. 

I was a sophomore in college at TCU in Ft. Worth, TX.   It was a Saturday the first day of a week-long spring break and I was home ready to enjoy time off from school.    I was surprised when the phone rings and it is Claudia, a college dorm buddy.  She is asking me to go on a blind date….oh no, a blind date, I hate blind dates.  She begs, pleads with me….oh he is tall, dark & very good looking.  He (the tall dark & handsome) is in town briefly with a buddy visiting his buddy’s brother before the two of them head down to Mexico for their spring break. 

“We are getting dates for everyone, come on, it will be fun,” Claudia says. 

“Oh, OK, I hate doing this, but just this once.” I replied.

The clock struck 7:30 PM, time for this tall, dark & handsome blind date to show up at my doorstep.  And speaking of doorstep, I had a sneaky way of spying on whoever stood on my doorstep prior to actually opening the front door.  Our house was built in an L shape and very conveniently the bathroom window looked directly onto the front porch, eye level.  Sooooo, anyone who rang the doorbell always got the once-over between the slats of the bathroom window blinds.   When the doorbell rang I was already in position for the look-see, and what I saw was NOT a tall, dark and wasn’t sure about the handsome part person standing on the front porch. 

So naturally the first words out of my mouth upon opening the front door was, “You are not tall & dark, (I did not add handsome, didn’t want to totally embarrass the guy) what happened to the tall & dark guy?”  Poor fella, he began to stammer and say he was a brother of tall  & dark that unexpectedly came into town at the last minute and when dividing up the dates, tall & dark decided that he better take the taller gal and leave his brother who was shorter with shorter gal, that would be me.  OK, I know that must be confusing…..Cliff (tall, dark & handsome) is the older brother that was headed down to Mexico with his buddy.   Gary (brother of tall, dark & handsome) is the younger brother, who is shorter, not particularly dark, not exactly handsome, but really cute.  OK, got that straight.  Anyway, Cliff decided that the first girl that was picked up was a bit tall, so he would save his brother, Gary, the embarrassment of being with a woman taller than him.  They were all informed that I was short, so I could end up with any of them with no tall girl, short guy embarrassment attached.

 

Now that we got that issue settled, we are all in one car (a big station wagon, no such thing as SUV’s back in those days) and now the question is, what do we do now?  A movie, of course…. doesn’t everyone go to a movie on that first blind date?  There is safety in sitting in a dark theater for a couple of hours, no searching for words to say in those  first awkward conversations, no looking directly at each other, just sharing a box of popcorn .... God forbid our fingers would happen to touch while scooping out the corn kernels. The movie was “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”.  Do you remember that movie?  A good movie for a first date, cute and safe.  Actually I don't even think there was such a thing as an R Rated Movie in those days.

The movie is over, now what?  OK let’s park (White Rock Lake was the place to park) and talk, get to know each other a little better.  Now remember there are 3 other couples in the car with us, all of us practically strangers, but lots of talk and laughter ensues and the whole evening was a roaring success.   A good blind date with a not so tall, a not so dark, a not so handsome, but a really cute nice guy. 

Cliff goes off to Mexico with his buddy but not before calling me for a date.  I guess the "taller" girl wasn't that impressive.  Gary returns to Ft. Hood, TX where he was currently stationed in the Army and I spend the week at home enjoying my spring break.  But before I return to school in Ft. Worth, Gary returns to Dallas and calls wanting to try a 2^nd date, this time no peeking required and 6 months later we were married. 

We all have a story to tell about how we met our sweethearts....we would love to hear your story, please share with us.  

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person." 

                                                                                                                ~  Mignon McLaughlin