Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
During and immediately after the War there was precious little work to be found in Belgium, so my mother's father, a man's man in the Ted Williams mold (although far more reserved), who had a considerable amount of wanderlust, moved his young family to the Congo, where my ma lived from the time she was three (1947) until she was a teenager. I learned about my father's family, from Russia and Poland respectively, mostly through the oral tradition, endless stories, and even some writings. But I learned about my mother's family chiefly through photographs and 8 mm home movies, a) because of the language barrier (they speak broken English, I speak broken French), and b) because they took an extraordinary amount of pictures. You can imagine how exotic it was to me as a kid to see photographs of my mom in Africa. "You grew up there and you wound up in the suburbs?" I used to kid her when I was a wise-ass teenager.
As it turns out, my mom and dad met in Addis Ababa, of all places. 1966. My father was there working as a production manager on a National Geographic Special on Africa. My mother was there with a group of friends, making a short documentary for graduate school about their trip from Northern Africa down to Ethipia.
Dig this. Which one you think is Ma Dooke?
And here's the old man, in full Elliott Gould mode:
So, where did your folks meet?
My mom's mom met her husband at a yeast factory in St. Louis in 1924.
My dad's mom and dad were likely fixed up in their small town in Illinois.
doomed from the start. : )
By pure chance, my wife and I ended up having our first date on May 17th in 2001. A bowling alley was not involved, however, and we had known each other going back to our college days.
the sort of unusual part is my mom is indian - from india and my dad grew up in detroit in a working class, mostly irish neighborhood - so that they met in iowa of all places is sort of funny (to us at least)
mom was a tiny upstate NY girl looking for the city.
hilarity ensued.
Engaged the day Robert Kennedy was shoot.
Honeymoon during the Moon Landing.
Grandparents better...Hell's kitchen prostitute gets pregnicized by drunky sailor, then marries top mob honchi...moves to Scranton to run gambling/prosti ops.
Mom's best friend, Betsy met up with here and they were taking the bus to the party along with a few other friends. When she got to neighborhood where the party was, it was quiet, and dark (she told me it was Christmas Day evening, so all the stores were closed,e etc.)
Since she and her friends were not familiar with the area that the party was in they were about to turn around and head back to their neighborhood when a young man approached them and asked if they were looking for the fraternity party and they said yes. He was kind enough to escort them to the party as he was going there too.
While at the party, mom's best friend is talking with this young man, who was hitting his head with a toy hammer (what a card!)
The record changed to a slow dance (it was a Paul Anka song, although mom can't remember the name, but it was very romantic. The man talking with mom's friend walked over to my mother and asked her to dance.
...as they say - the rest is history. They married December 26th, 1964 - ironically, four years and one day after the anniversary of when they met....aaaaaw!) Big brother Glenn born in '66 and my twin sister & I born in '68. They'll be married 44 years this year.
Mom's best friend, Betsy met up with here and they were taking the bus to the party along with a few other friends. When she got to neighborhood where the party was, it was quiet, and dark (she told me it was Christmas Day evening, so all the stores were closed, etc.)
Since she and her friends were not familiar with the area that the party was in they were about to turn around and head back to their neighborhood when a young man approached them and asked if they were looking for the fraternity party and they said yes. He was kind enough to escort them to the party as he was going there too.
While at the party, mom's best friend is talking with this young man, who was hitting his head with a toy hammer (what a card!)
The record changed to a slow dance (it was a Paul Anka song, although mom can't remember the name, but it was very romantic.) The man talking with mom's friend walked over to my mother and asked her to dance. The dude was my dad....
...as they say - the rest is history. They married December 26th, 1964 - ironically, four years and one day after the anniversary of when they met....aaaaaw!) Big brother Glenn born in '66 and my twin sister & I born in '68. They'll be married 44 years this year.
Good old Derek. Wouldn't say shit if he had a mouthful.
They then proceeded to be very happy and successful, and produced some very good looking kids.
My folks met at GE - Schenectady, NY. (As my dad used to call it "Generous Electric").
Dad started in the mail room at 16, worked his way up to management. Met my mom (secretary) when they were both in their late 20s. Late, in those days, for marriage .... but it worked !
They didn't actually start dating until they were 15, and sophomores in high school. My mom's father was kind of a jerk, and though my mother was very pretty, few guys dared to call her because of her father. My dad was the only who persisted. (He claims he chased her until he got caught.)
My dad met his second wife at a divorced-singles-type mixer. Ironically, they both hated the event. I think they actually met because they both left early and bumped into each other on the way out.
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