Reading the Graduation Day thread got me to thinking about attending my now wife's graduation. The college my wife (and I before her) graduated from does not hand out your actual diploma when you walk across the stage, just the diploma holder. They mail the diploma to you after the ceremony. I worked it out with the college and surprised my wife with a marriage proposal in her diploma holder. She said yes. That was a little over 25 years ago. How did you propose to your wife?
She had spent close to a year trying to get me to move in with her and I just didn't want to live together before marriage. She was also wondering why I had spent so much time in Israel. So I took her to Jerusalem, showed her the country and proposed in front of the Temple Mount.
I had a job offer in another state, that meant being away for at least a year. Was sitting in my truck at Sonic eating a hamburger when she saw me and stopped. Told her about the job and proposed, she said yes and 6 weeks later we got hitched. 41 years ago.
With us,..it was more or less an affirmation that she was sure that it was what she wanted. She had made her intentions known. I had already been through one marriage. She hadn't. So,..from my perspective, it was more or less just making sure she knew what it was.
It's been 20+ years. The situation is much more regular these days.
She had spent close to a year trying to get me to move in with her and I just didn't want to live together before marriage. She was also wondering why I had spent so much time in Israel. So I took her to Jerusalem, showed her the country and proposed in front of the Temple Mount.
After living together for a while, knowing her for 3-4 years before that I went to the Post Office to pick up the mail.
She had a few items along with mine.
It was near to Valentine's day, I like candy and therefor had a box of Sweethearts laying on the seat. Knowing there were "Marry Me" candies in there, I got one out, worked one in through the corner of one of her pieces of mail, and left her mail where I normally did.
Still one of the most unique methods I have heard of.
Never really asked her to "marry me". I was a bit more unconventional . . . I asked her if she would "darn my socks" for a long time. 44 years ago Dec 17th, 1975 this was, after dating for 3 weeks. Married less than 7 months later. We are still going.
Never really asked her to "marry me". I was a bit more unconventional . . . I asked her if she would "darn my socks" for a long time. 44 years ago Dec 17th, 1975 this was, after dating for 3 weeks. Married less than 7 months later. We are still going.
We dated for 2 years, just seemed to happen. Dec 20, 1975.
"The Warden"s maternal grandpa asked her grandma - "Wanna come cook for me?"
In a Jaguar E Type, right before she dropped me off to go brief for a flight in Pensacola where I was in flight training. Still with me 38 years this December 18.
I had just finished my second year at the local community college, which was a branch of the University of Kentucky. A recruiter came by and was interviewing students to come to a college in Eastern Kentucky which had a very good that had to do with the reclamation of the strip mines for coal. He said the coal companies were paying big bucks for those students to come and work for them. My wife and I were dating, and she said that if I went, I wasn't going without here.............I said, "I guess you're asking me to marry you."
That was almost 50 years ago, and I still tell everybody that she asked me, not me asking her. To be honest about it, I guess we were so much in love with each other, that both of us just assumed we were going to marry.
I was working seasonally for the forest service and trapping in the winter. We had a late winter and ended up working later in the fall than planned. I still needed to get my traps out as I was long lining for coyotes and covering a lot of ranches every year. Missing the early part of the season was missing a lot of income for me so I was checking traps and skinning at night and working the days and getting very little sleep. I took Etta with me one night to check traps and ended up catching a pile of coyotes that night. I hung the first one up and was about to start skinning when she came out to the fur shed and said, "if you'll show me how, I help you skin." I figured I'd never get a better offer than that and proposed on the spot. We were married in February between the end of bobcat season and the beginning of spring beaver and muskrat season. Romantic cuss ain't I.
I dragged my feet a bit.... got her to move across the state with me and leave her good job, later bought a house together.
I then got her dad to smuggle her two great grandmas diamond engagement ring that had been out together on one ring and was supposed to go to her mom but grandma didn’t like her. He came up with some kind of lie to get it out her. Like it needed to be cleaned or something.
Anyway, I kept dragging my feet and we were headed for a flight to see my family for Christmas. She took the dogs to the kennel, so I dangled the ring on fishing line from the bannister where she would have to run into it, then hid around the corner and waited for the gasp when she came back home.
Later updated the ring and band with the same two diamonds
I had been dating her about a year and a half and took her from here (North Texas) to Michigan City, Indiana for Christmas, mainly to see her Grandma. I got a pretty warm reception and at a party one night one of her uncles asked me if I intended to make an honest woman of her. I told him I was seriously considering it. Later that night on the way back to Grandma's where we were staying, I pulled off the road and asked her if she'd like to be my wife. Felt pretty weird to do that, but I did it.
Jul-Aug 2000 I just re-enlisted and my 1SG comes up to me and goes how you getting your family to Arizona. My GF now wife just had our daughter. I said I'm taking them with me, he goes the Army isn't paying you to move them. Then he said you need to get married. That weekend drove to Oregon my gf now wife worked for IHS. I said we need to get married lol.. been married 19 plus yrs..
In a Jaguar E Type, right before she dropped me off to go brief for a flight in Pensacola where I was in flight training. Still with me 38 years this December 18.
Who the hell is that with your wife??!!!
She still looks the same. You were striht from Central Casting back in the old days.
(I might consider you've seen photos me and Mrs. Hatari back when I was buff and shaggy haired, so let's just forget about all this??)
My parents were getting assigned to a US Embassy in East Africa
I was 18, about to be homeless when Dad did the Colonel Kurtz thing with the house, the cars, the horses, the boat, the dogs.
Lived in my girlfriend's bedroom for a couple weeks. 😄
that story deserves more than 2 sentences - the Kurtz part, not the marriage
I guessing "Sell the home, the cars, the wife, the kids" and whatever else was in the tape they played to Martin Sheen before they sent him after Kurtz
I don’t remember, but my wife does because she brought it up a couple of weeks ago. Apparently I stopped by the dental office that she worked at. At some point in the conversation I suggested that maybe we should get married. She then asked if we could have a date and I said “sure let me go home and get cleaned up”. She then had to clarify what have a date meant. At some point I probably would have figured it out.
On top of the ski mountain @ Sunday River Maine. Great weekend ski trip and luckily she said yes. 21 years ago come this January. I’ll never forget the proposal. (Got it on camera) lol! We were married exactly 9 months later.
We both took a taxi to her house after attending the 1973 Marine Corps Birthday Ball in Rota Spain. As i walked her the last block to her home, we stopped and I got a kiss, then asker he to marry me. She said yes, but I needed to ask her dad, who was very sick in bed, in her house. I came over in the next few days and went into her dad's bedroom. I did not speak a single word of Spanish, but my future wife translated for me. He was so sick he couldn't speak, but he took my hand and her hand and squeezed them together and looked at me and smiled, and nodded his head. He died on 1 Jan 1974. My future wife told me that it was a custom in Spain that she wear black for one year and that we could not get married for at least another year. I kept bugging her over the next few months and finally her mother told her to go ahead and get married, which we did on 15 March 1974.
In 2012 our son was a software engineer at Amazon and he invited me to lunch in Seattle. He wanted to ask me how to propose to his girl friend. I told him how I proposed to his mother. The check arrived and he said to me, "Don't get cheap with me now!" ala Newman in Jurassic Park.
I told the wife about my day, and she called up our son and said I proposed all wrong. I had told my wife in 1977 that she always had the option, and there was no pressure. Two days later she opted to exercise the option.
My son listened to his mother and proposed to his girlfriend on one knee, in her garden, with a flower in his hand.
I was 24 and working the booking desk at our jail,we had lived together a lil over 2 years at the time. Back then you had to sign up for Insurance when it was open or wait till the next year. I worked off nights and told her we had a class come up that Mon am, I went and bought her a ring and asked her when she came in from work that afternoon. The next day it was a done deal for the next 31 1/2 years. Would I change any thing about it, not for all the money in the world. Would I give all the money in the world to have her back,you bet and then some. She passed Aug 13 last year. If you are lucky enough to have a great wife treat her right it pays off in the long run. Ps Cancer Sucks.
We both took a taxi to her house after attending the 1973 Marine Corps Birthday Ball in Rota Spain. As i walked her the last block to her home, we stopped and I got a kiss, then asker he to marry me. She said yes, but I needed to ask her dad, who was very sick in bed, in her house. I came over in the next few days and went into her dad's bedroom. I did not speak a single word of Spanish, but my future wife translated for me. He was so sick he couldn't speak, but he took my hand and her hand and squeezed them together and looked at me and smiled, and nodded his head. He died on 1 Jan 1974. My future wife told me that it was a custom in Spain that she wear black for one year and that we could not get married for at least another year. I kept bugging her over the next few months and finally her mother told her to go ahead and get married, which we did on 15 March 1974.
Wow Phil Mrs Kati aint changed a bit, but that uniform might be a lil snug on ya now. I know it happens to the best of us.
2d marriage for both of us. I told her about a job I thought she should take. It was caring for a crotchety old man as a live-in nursemaid. The pay was lousy but it did come with a bit of a retirement plan. Once she figured out what I was talking about, she said ok.
Wife 2.0, KYHillChick, and I were down in McCreary County, KY at her Mom's.
Earlier in the trip, I'd traded her Mom a microwave in exchange for her hand in marriage. I'll tell that story in a bit. Anyhow, I took her out to the 3-Forks of the Beaver (an overlook in the Beaver Creek WMA) and proposed marriage on bended knee.
So let me get this straight, shaman, you traded a microwave for your wife? Yep. I went back in the hollers and traded an old mountain woman a microwave for her only daughter.
See, the first time I'd met her mom, I'd gotten up early and tried to fix breakfast for everyone. That's when I discovered her microwave was broken.
"Oh, that thing! It hasn't worked in 5 years."
"Why do you keep it in the kitchen?"
"It works well as a bread safe."
"Have you tried to get it fixed?"
"Nobody around these parts knows how to fix 'em."
I then offered to pick a microwave up in Cincinnati and bring it to her on our next trip down. I went home and bought a scratch n den microwave for $155 (I told her it was only $50). When I went to deliver it to her, she broke down in tears.
"The doc put me on these new pills. I can't afford them and the microwave. Can I mail you $5 a month until I get it paid off?"
"That's okay." I replied. "You keep the microwave and let me keep your daughter, and we'll call it even."
. . and that's how I traded an old mountain woman a microwave for her only daughter.
BTW: Here's the very spot where I popped the question:
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![[Linked Image]](https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/gallery/80/full/115768.jpg)
![[Linked Image from kentuckyboytravels.com]](https://www.kentuckyboytravels.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Beaver-Creek-Overlook-Another-Angle-5-12-15.jpg)