Saturday, October 17, 2015

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - How Did Your Parents Meet?

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) Do you know how, when and where your parents met?  


2)  Please tell the family story in your own blog post, in a comment to this blogp ost, or in your own Facebook or Google+ post.

NOTE:  You can substitute your own story about meeting your spouse, or the story about your grandparents, etc.

Here's mine:

My father, Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983) grew up in Leominster, Massachusetts, the 5th of 7 children, but the oldest surviving son.  By the accounts of his siblings, he was fairly rowdy and irresponsible as a teenager and young adult.  In December 1940, escaping the deep snows of Massachusetts and/or a failed love match, he took off for California.  He drove about 3,000 miles in three days through Columbus, St. Louis, Flagstaff, San Bernardino and to San Diego.  He arrived on the doorstep of his Aunt Emily (Richmond) Taylor in San Diego - surprise!

He lived with the Taylor family - Aunt Emily, Uncle George, Cousin Dorothy, Dorothy's husband Marshall, and their daughter Marcia, a 14-year old teenager - for some time in 1941.

My mother, Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) was a shy, studious and hard working young lady who had graduated from San Diego State College in 1940, and was teaching Art and English at Woodrow Wilson Junior High School in City Heights in San Diego. 

According to Dorothy, who loved to tell the story every time we took her out to lunch in the 1980s, at some point Fred said "I need a girl friend" while at the dinner table, and Marcia said "I know a really nice teacher."  Guess who?  Yes, Betty, who Marcia knew from the art classes she attended at Woodrow Wilson Junior High, less than a mile from her home.

Somehow, a meeting was arranged, an invitation to dinner ensued to Betty Carringer and a romance was begun (I don't know for how long).  

In July 1942, they were married, went on a short honeymoon to Dana Point, and lived in a bungalow house on Twin Oaks Avenue in Chula Vista.  They both worked in the aircraft industry at Rohr Aircraft in Chula Vista until late 1943 when little Randy was born.



They say that opposites attract...and in this case you probably couldn't find two people more different from each other.  But it worked for 41 years, a traditional home, three responsible sons, and four grandchildren.  

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-did.html

Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver


Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.



8 comments:

Debi Austen said...

Here's mine. http://who-knew-it.blogspot.com/2015/10/sngf-how-they-met.html

Janice M. Sellers said...

Here's mine:

http://ancestraldiscoveries.blogspot.com/2015/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-did.html

Lois Willis said...

Here's mine.
http://loiswillis.com/2015/10/18/sunday-afternoon-genealogy-fun-how-did-your-parents-meet/

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Here's mine:

http://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2015/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-how-did.html

Anonymous said...

Here's Mine:

How My Parents Met

Lynn David said...

My parents' story:

http://lijability.livejournal.com/111813.html

Mary Foxworthy said...

My parents met in first grade in 1920. They married in 1936. Saving more info for a future blog post.

dancer said...

My parents met in high school in the late 1940s.They were in the same geometry class, and according to reports, often flirted with each other in class. My mom is 6 months younger than my dad, but because she started school early, was a year ahead of him in school. My maternal grandmother said that my paternal grandfather was told by the teacher that if "Bob spent as much time on school work as he did with Doris, he'd be an excellent student." Ha.Mom graduated in 1951, dad in 1952. They married in 1955 and I came along the following year, followed by my sister 3 yrs later.