How My Mom And Dad Meet

#52stories

The credit for this post goes to my Dad...

I was living in Southfield Michigan and Judy was in Pontiac, about 40 miles north. We were in the same Bloomfield Hills Stake but in different wards. I was attending BYU majoring in Music and Judy was still in High School. The stake was unique in that it had a powerful group of teens, and activities, plays, dances, roadshows etc. occupied much of our time and as a result, from a teens perspective, it was more like we were all in one Ward we were together so much.

While I was at BYU my father had a devastating stroke so I returned home, assuming I would return to school. Unfortunately he  did not recover and was disabled for years. I had to stay in Michigan. One night I attended an activity in the Stake Center where  a group of teens gathered. I admit I was doing a bit of trolling, and fortunately found Judy. She accompanied me to the hospital to visit dad...and we fell in love in the elevator.

That fall Judy went to BYU and I spent all of my money in the telephone booth in the convenience store. She kept talking about her archery instructor so when she returned for Christmas break I knew I had to make a move, and I drove her out to the stake center parking lot and did the ring thing. She was 18, I was an "adult" 21, so no reason to wait. We were married in the Logan Utah temple on 14June1960. The drive home served as our honeymoon, and we spent, literally our last cent, on dinner in Chicago. We moved in to my parents basement where we lived and where Judy worked at an advertising company, and I started my career at J.L. Hudson's and I went back to school at the University of Detroit and  we helped with dad.

Be careful when you fall in love because this may be you about 57 years later!!!

What are your memories of school lunch?

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I went to Oak Ridge Elementary, in Royal Oak, from kindergarten through 3rd grade.  We ate at school and brought lunch boxes.  My favorite school lunches at this school were the Hot Dog lunches.  We got to eat in the classroom and you ordered hot dogs.  I usually got 2..I thought I was so cool.  They wrapped each cooked hot dog in foil to keep it warm.  This gives it a very different taste...a little soggy yet delicious.  Definitely not something you would get in a five star restaurant..or probably even a 1 star but I thought they were yummy!!

When I started at Roosevelt Elementary, in Ferndale, we went home for lunch every day.  The best part of this was that we had time to go over to friends houses for lunch.  Ok, not the best..the best was when we got to go out to eat at The Red Barn.

We thought we were so cool.  Eating with no parents.  

In Lincoln Jr High they had separate rooms for people who bought their lunch and people who brought it from home.  The first time I went to buy lunch I was walking in the hall and accidentally tripped a big 8th grade boy.  That scared me and embarrassed me....so I did not buy very often.  I mostly brought lunch from home.  My go to lunch was a jelly sandwich, because I hated peanut butter.  I still do not like peanut butter sandwiches.  The vice principal was always in this lunch room.  He walked a round with a paddle hitting his hand.  I guess it kept us in line because I don't remember anyone ever getting in trouble.  

In 8th grade the closed down Lincoln and split us into two elementary schools that the converted to junior highs.  I went To Best.  They did not have kitchens at Best so they brought in these little warming ovens.  We had TV dinners for lunch every day.  They were a joke because it was always the same meat with a different sauce.  So Salisbury Steak had a brown gravy and meatloaf had a reddish gravy.  Since we were at an elementary school we got to play on the playground after lunch.  We spent a lot of time on the swings.

At Ferndale High we had great lunches.  There was a salad line and hamburger line everyday.  I loved the salads as they always had a lot of topping choices and you always got a roll.  They tasted homemade and were yummy.  They also had two lines that had the lunch choice of the day.  My favorite day in that line was turkey, mashed potatoes and a roll.  When we were done eating we went up stairs and hung out in what we called the commons.  It was a huge space with some benches and a candy machine that we all used daily!