How They Met ...

Here goes...

Dad & I met at a school dance in Worcester at the end of my Junior Yr in HS. It was a record hop as you have DJ's spinning records. We had '78 records then and a person from a local radio station would be the DJ. Kids from all schools and from all over Worcester usually went and it was fun. They had dances all over Worcester most weekends at a church hall or school gym, so most kids knew how to dance ok. Not like nowadays when they do not dance as much.

We met at South High school (where I went to school). Then, the boys usually did all the asking to dance and at some point during the night he asked me. He was a great dancer and we had fun. Rock & Roll was popular music ... Fats Domino, Paul Anka, Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Pat Boone and more that Dad might remember. The Jitterbug was popular at the time.

We spent most of the night together getting to know each other. Dad was "big jock" in the Worcester area as I found out as we started dating after that. He was a regular on the All-City sports honor teams each year since his Freshman year at ST Peter's HS ..... and quite handsome I might add. Being all-city was a big honor as it was selected from all high schools in the Worcester area ... and there were many. He played at the "A" Field in Worcester which was a sports complex for all high schools in the city. Teams of all sorts I think, except bball. He also was on student council and a member of other clubs at school. He worked at a grocery store part time as well.

Anyways, we started dating after that and just kept going for the rest of HS thru St Vincent's Nursing School and Worcester Academy and then on to UM. We went to many dances, proms, etc. Some school club dances were held at a local barn which was fun. I sometimes went with other boys from St John's Prep school too of which he was not happy at the time. He now calls them the "shrimps" as they were shorter than he was and those plans were already in the works when i met him.

We started "going steady" after a few months, which meant I got his letter sweater to wear as well as his class ring with lots of tape rolled around it so it fit me ... COOL!! We double dated a lot as Dad did not have access to a car but going with others was always fun .... Sometimes ... except during the cold winter nights when he would leave my house when we did not go out but stayed in to watch TV. Looking back, I feel so bad for him as he would leave my house bet 11 -12 PM in all kinds of weather, walk down the hill past the park to Webster Square and hitch a ride home to the other side of Worcester .... a long ways away, sometimes taking a couple of hrs on a slow night, freezing outside etc. Now, as a parent, I would die if you kids did that ... I guess if he went through all that it was destined to be ... the rest is history...

Love,

MOM

and Dad's, in an email titled "Mom's Orders" ...

Dan, Mom's been on me to write something, even though I have been doing a complete journal for a while. I first saw your mother at a CYC parade in Worcester, and fell in love with her at first sight. She was marching with her church group and I was with the St. Peters group too cool to march! A few weeks later at a South High record hop I saw her again, this was not my school, but a lot of people came from all over Worcester to these Dances. I built enough courage to ask her to dance and she agreed. She was a grade ahead of me so this was not the way that most high school kids dated, so I was lucky. We talked on the phone a lot, hours at a time. Dated all through her senior year and my jr. and senior year and a year of Prep school. After my Soph. year year we got married and Jeff came along soon after. Mom had finished nursing school that year so she worked until Jeff.

That's it.

Dad