The Beginning of the Story

Yesterday after Sunday dinner I interviewed both mom and dad about their first date and when they were dating. I learned lots of new things I hadn't heard before.

I asked my dad what his first thought about my mom was and he said "she was fine." Nice dad, way to be romantic. Then my dad said "and she was a good kisser, we kissed on our first date".

When I asked my mom the same thing she said "he was so tall, I loved how tall he was. He was tall, dark and handsome (with glasses) and he was so much fun". She talked about what a good dresser he was too. She said he would wear a button up shirt with a tie and a sweater with slacks and that he always looked so nice.

So here is the story....

Dad got set up to take Carol (mom's older sister) to a party by his friend Randy Culp. Randy was Uncle Ron's best man at his wedding, was in dad's fraternity and knew Carol through school. Carol's fiance ended up coming back into town that weekend so my mom ended up going instead. The first date was going to a party with a bunch of dad's friends.

Mom said it was over Christmas break from school (her freshman year and his junior year at WSU) and they went to a party and ended up sitting in the kitchen making popcorn and talking. That night they planned to go snow skiing the next day. Over Christmas break they went skiing (mom of course wore dad out on the slopes), they went to a movie and to a hockey game. The hockey game was one that Uncle Bud (dad's uncle) was the coach one of his kids was on the team and Bud's brother-in-law was the referee. Mom said it was a blast to go to.

Mom said that she really liked his 1956 green Mercury but when the got back to school she found out it wasn't his it was his mom's car and he had an old 1939 Pontiac. She said when he would take her out at school everyone would think he was such a gentleman when he would walk over to her side of the car to open her door. Then he would climb in and scoot over to the driver's side since his door didn't open.

Both of them grew up in Spokane but on different sides of town. Mom grew up in the valley and dad grew up in town on the north side. Then they both ended up going to Washington State College (it changed to Washington State University before they graduated). They didn't know each other but my mom said her dad knew about the Schultz family through Grandpa Schultz's involvement in the community.

My mom said that her first Christmas present from my dad (1 year after their 1st date) was a coat. She said she still has the coat. Grandma Jo came with my dad to mom's house to give it to her and made her try it on while she was there to make sure it was perfect. Then after they left my mom said Grandma Giboney looked at her and said "you know men only give presents like that if they are serious".

They dated for 2 1/2 years before they got married. My mom said that once she started dating dad she never dated anyone else. Dad talked about a girl from Loon Lake that he went out with a few times while he was dating mom, but it sounded to me like once they started dating it was destined to turn into an eternity of fun for both of them.