To wonder how your parents and grandparents met?

[Daisywellies]

In a world where so many couples seem to meet on line or through work it would be nice to hear of how couples met years ago when the internet didn't exist and people didn't work the long hours they do nowadays.

My parents met through friends; one set of grandparents met when my grandfather knocked my grandmother over with his bike outside the local library, the other when my grandmother served my granddad in a tea shop.

My grandma worked in a cigarette factory when ww2 was happening, all the girls in factory used to put their addresses in the the cigarette packets, my grandad wrote to her and they were married 6 months later

Why is this an AIBU and why would you BU to wonder how our grandparents and parents met?

My Grandparents met at a badminton club in a church hall, my mum was friends with someone who worked beside my dad and they all went to a dance together.

My mum worked at the sewing factory and dad was a farm labourer. They were both 15 and kinda knew each other through friends. They went around in a group for a while then one day Dad plucked up courage to ask mum out to the pictures.

Maybe a bit Too much courage cos mum looked at him, pursed her lips, inclined her head and said

"Aye mebbe - mebbe not. Ask me when you've sobered up and tucked your shirt in "

This has made me think. I have no idea how my grandparents met but both sets were from the same towns. my parents met at the young Conservatives. I don't think my dad was a natural Tory voter but it seemed to be a good place to meet women. My mum was staying with a friend & went to one of their social do's.

My parents met in an amateur operatic society. They started going out when doin Iolanthe by Gilbert and Sullivan. I met my husband in an amateur operatic society at university also doing a Gilbert and sulivan operetta, the Mikado. Small world.

My parents met when they were both in the Fire Service during WWII - she was his Leading Firewoman
PIL met when they both visited the home of their respective Best Friends - who were brother and sister. They then discovered that they both lived at the other side of town - in parallel streets, and their back gardens were separated only by a fence
When my MILs Dad asked the name of her new boyfriend, he said, surprised, 'I thought that you said you'd never go out with a man who drinks?' (she'd 'signed the pledge' in her teens) and on being told, 'He doesn't drink Dad', responded, 'Then either he's not a Smith (name changed!) or he's a bloody liar..!!'

But he didn't drink (the rest of his family made up for it - and were the reason that he didn't) and they were married for 41 happy years....
All together now - Aaawwwww

My parents met like this. They were both at the same university. They both went to a party in a top floor flat one night. My dad was leaving the party and going down the stairs to the front door just as my mother was arriving. They passed each other on the stairs. My dad thought 'that's the most beautiful woman I have ever seen' so he turned round and followed her back into the party. Fifty years later they are still together.

DH's maternal gps met by letter during the war when she offered to write to her brother's comrades. They got engaged before they'd ever met in person.

My (sweaty, stinking from a basketball game, already missed weeks of classes) dad tripped over my mother & crashed into the seat next to her, at a university lecture. And asked her what was going on. She (single divorced mother of 2) was very appalled.

Gran1 was a teenage typist for Great-father1.

Grandad2 was the teenage cinema manager and spotted pretty 14yo Gran2 coming to the pictures every week.

My parents met on a blind date and were married within a year.
My maternal grandparents met at a dance and my paternal grandparents were neighbours, although when my gramps was in the forces my nan had another boyfriend through the week, and saw him weekends until they got married (she had a few too many one Christmas and let it slip - after my gramps day mind you, I don't think he would have been so amused)

My dad emigrated on one of the £10 flights to Australia in the late sixties. He came home for a holiday & to give his sister away at her wedding in 1973, met my mum in a jazz club and never went back.

My maternal grandparents met after my grandad was invited to the home of a friend of a friend on his day off. He noticed a picture of a young woman on the mantlepiece & commented on how pretty she was - it was the FoFs cousin. He fixed them up the next time they were both in town & she became my nan !

My Grandparents (Dad's side) met at school, started dating at 15, together until Grandad died.

My other Grandparents (Mum's side) met when Grandad was stationed in Antwerp after being in the D Day landings. He went back for her after the war and they moved to England.

My Mum met my Dad when she moved into a house share to piss off her then boyfriend. They met on Shrove Tuesday and were married on Bonfire Night the same year still together.

My Great Gran (Dads Mums Mum) met her DH on holiday in Cornwall. It turned out they actually lived within a few miles of each other! And her DSis married one of her BILS. All very lovely. I used to love listening to her tell that story

My other Great Gran (Dads Dads Mum) met her DH down the Sally Army dance.

My Dads parents met at school. Still together now.

My Dad met my Mum at a Northern Soul night.

I met exDP in a nightclub, can't wait till my DDs ask...

Met DH when I had just moved back to my home town after I split with exDP, I was having an incredibly difficult time and this stranger turned up to help me. (Friend of mine rang round her friends to ask if they could lend a hand. He said yes. He now says that one act of kindness was the best decision he ever made!) DH turned up with a screwdriver and some cable and helped me with some DIY. 18 months after that, he turned up on my doorstep just before Christmas and demanded a kiss.

One set of grandparents met on a bus on the way to a classical music concert. The others met when babcia agreed to go on a date with someone her friend had double booked herself with. My parents - at church (when dad was on a break from seminary. ...).

GPs under the clock at St Pancras following a lonely hearts ad....she replaced her friend who got cold feet at the last moment.

Dparents...at a dance hall. Dad's car ran out of petrol so he couldn't go to his usual pulling place.......walked in with his mate..said"I'm going to dance with her" and did...for the next 49 years (so far).

One set of grandparents met at a dance. The others I am not sure.

My parents met at a house party thrown by my Mum's boyfriend. Dad was a neighbour. He ended up being the third guy in the same building that she dated . He was the only one she married though!

My mum met my dad at uni. Apparently I was conceived at the after-show party of a uni theatre group play my dad was in.

My grandparents met at church. Grandma had red hair, but covered it with a scarf in church, and grandad used to watch her and want to pull it off and see if her hair was as beautiful as he imagined. He took himself off to ballroom dancing lessons so he could ask her to a dance without embarrassing himself.

Known my DH since I was 11. Shared English classes all through secondary school. In Yr 9, we studied Midsummer Night's Dream. He was the Faerie King and I was the Faerie Queen. Started going out when I was in Upper VIth and he was in Lower as he had decided to go to a different college straight out of school. And then realised the course he was on was pants.

My mum and dad met probably at a dance at the ICI Recreation Club. My mum later worked at ICI, but at the time, you could be a member just by paying a small membership fee. They got engaged after about a year, and married the day before the first anniversary of their engagement. They were very much together until Mum died 3 weeks before their Silver Wedding Anniversary.

Mum's M&D probably lived in the same neighbourhood as kids. Certainly knew each other from a young age. Grandad was bereft when Nan died in 2001; they were a few weeks shy of their Golden Wedding Anniversary and he was never the same until he died in 2007.

No idea how my lovely dad's dad ended up with his harridan of a wife. Grandad was a POW in the Far East (think The Railway Man with Colin Firth). They were still living together when he went into hospital in 1994. She is still alive but has dementia. I doubt she has ever really loved anyone.

MIL and PIL were like my mum's parents - lived in the same neighbourhood and went to school together. They've been married 45 years in October. And are lovely IL's

My parents met at a church youth club.

My maternal grandparents met at university where they were both studying dentistry. Never realised that Granny must have been a bit of a trailblazer at uni in the 1930s until after she had died. Wish I had talked to her more about it.

On a bus! They lived in neighbouring villages and got the same bus as they were both doing a shorthand and typing course. My dad wanted to be a journalist and my mum a secretary. Their liaison was quite controversial as he was a Catholic and my mum's family was Plymouth Brethren. They refused to attend the wedding but reconciled when my older sister was born, when my mum was 23!

Parents & Grandparents are all each others cousins (Pakistani muslims) so met as part of the wider extended family.

My father first got designs on my mother when she was told by her mother to go round and cook for him as his sisters had got married and his mother had died and there was no one left to 'look after him'.

She was just a young teen and felt nothing disliked for him. A good few years later he moved to England and wrote to her father asking for her hand in marriage. She was persuaded forced to marry him. In those days as flights were expensive he couldn't afford to fly back to Pakistan for the wedding, so they had a telephone ceremony and she joined him 1 year later. Neither could really remember what he other looked like so they agreed he'd be the person carrying a red rose at the Airport. Sounds quite romantic in the end.

My parents met at school, but bumped into each other in a pub a few years later and got together.

Mil and fil worked together

My grandparents met when he was 12 and she was 11. He was illegitimate and his stepfather was a drunken bully who used to beat him and starve him. My ggm lived down the road and used to feed him and tend his injuries.

He ran away to sea at 14, but kept in touch with my gran, and they married when he returned 5 years later. (He never went back to his stepfathers house)

My parents were introduced by a mutual friend at the age of 14. DF had been to the swimming pool. The immortal words were: "Oi, Major, been polluting the baths again?" It was love at first sight.

GP on father's side worked in shops next door to each other.

On mother's side it's a bit hush-hush. She was 2 years older than him and they "had" to get married. When I knew them they lived separate lives in the same house, avoiding even the sight of each other.

This thread is such a fascinating insight into history!

My parents met in a pub owned by my mother's aunt in my father's home town. My mother had been sent to stay with her aunt to get over a broken heart. My mother's sister had an arranged marriage.

Maternal grandparents met at a dance. Paternal grandparents met through work.