Our Meet-Cute Story
The beginning of every romantic comedy features a tension-filled encounter that pits the two main characters against each other in some kind of twisted fate circumstance, otherwise known as the “meet-cute.” The actions those characters take in their first encounter will set a pattern that contains the theme of the whole book. Cue the violins, violas, cellos, and bass!
This post contains its own background music. For full effect, click on the link below and listen while you read.
The year was 1967. Stuart was a senior in college and the editor of the student newspaper, The Weather Vane. Having skipped a grade in elementary school, he was a mere 20 years old and soon to celebrate his 21st birthday.
The editor-in-chief at work in the Weather Vane office — holding his famous red pen in his hand.
I was a first-year student and a cub reporter. I felt a little intimidated by seniors in general, and especially ones with leadership roles.
On the other hand, I loved a challenge, and this guy had made a very public statement at the beginning of his senior year: “I won’t date any freshmen.” I wondered why someone would make such a foolish, blanket statement like that and what might make him change his mind . . .
So, as his January 11 birthday approached, and the staff decided to surprise him with a cake in the office, I volunteered to make the cake.
I chose chocolate topped with chocolate icing and splurged on a tube of red icing so that I could etch the words “Hail to the Chief” (an allusion to his position as editor-in-chief) on top. The party came off without a hitch. We pulled off the surprise to much laughter. The senior staff members were the stars of the show. I stayed in the background.
The next day a thank you note appeared on the bulletin board in the office: “Thanks to all of you for a great surprise party. P. S. Special thanks to the squall who baked the cake.”
I was thrilled that he had noticed my clever allusion to his “chief” position and that I had remained anonymous.
In his attempt to play with the word, however, he veered close to what we now call sexism and nativism. I noticed a slight pang of internal discomfort and indignation, but overlooked this. It was 1967.
What I saw before me was a huge opportunity. The guy famous for circling all errors in news copy with red ink had misspelled the word “squaw”!!
In a flash I reached for my own paper and pen.
“I have been called tempermental before, but no one has ever dared call me a squall. — Gale Storm”
Wikipedia Photo
(I only knew that name only because a wallet I purchased in high school had a black-and-white picture of Gale Storm, the movie star, in it. The unusual name had stuck in my head. It was needed only once in my life, and I knew now was perfect time for it!)
I proudly posted my response on the bulletin board next to the thank-you note in the quiet newspaper office, then fled the scene. When I returned in the evening, I saw that my note had a red circle around the word “tempermental.”
It should be spelled “temperamental,” of course. As soon as I saw that red ink, I blushed.
The eagle-eyed chief had gotten his revenge on the upstart!
Two months later, the phone at the end of our dormitory hall rang. The “chief” was on the other end, swallowing his prideful boast about who he wouldn’t date, and asking if I would go to the next lecture-music series event with him.
I said yes.
Today is exactly 58 years from the day I decorated that cake. The chief and I have had some more skirmishes over many years. If we are lucky, we will have more!
Newlyweds in 1969 beside the barn of the Hershey Home Place.
Salsa dancing on the beach, San Juan, PR. Jan. 1. 2025
Do you have a meet-cute story of your own to share? We would love to hear it. I plan to post this story on the morning of Stuart’s 79th birthday. If you want to send him a message, you can do it here.
Happy birthday, you handsome devil! Glad to be able to call you friend and neighbor!
From Stuart: Thanks, Jeanette. I appreciate your friendship for, lo, many years!
Did you notice the Bryl Cream in the yearbook photo? 🙂
Happy Birthday to you too…or you two…or
Ha! Good one.
Have a lovely birthday, Stuart!!
When I graduated from college (in Minnesota) I got on a greyhound bus and traveled around the country till I ran out of money. It was Washington, DC and I got a room at the YWCA and a job at the Statler Hilton Hotel (three blocks from the White House). It was the summer of the Watergate hearings and the witnesses all stayed at the hotel. Exciting time. I dated another room clerk who told me one day he had something special in mind. I jumped on his motorcycle and we ended up at a motel. I don’t know what he did, but I got a taxi home. Sorry for myself I called two Iowa friends who were doing internships at the National Endowment for the Arts. they had tickets for a show in Georgetown (“Warp”) and at intermission we met a young man who was the Company Manager for a Broadway show — the worse grossing at the National Theatre ever. He took the three of us to dinner and started dating one of the other girls … I was not having that. In less than a year we were married, moved to Greenwich village, Don managed shows and I discovered Union Seminary.
“I was not having that. . .” love it! A meet-cute in a nutshell.
What a beautiful, fun story, Shirley!!
And happy birthday Stuart! May you have a blessed day as you celebrate another year of Gods goodness!
Thank you, Elaine. It is indeed a blessed day. May yours be blessed also.
Who knew? Happy birthday, Stuart!!
Can’t believe it has taken me all these years to put this story down in “print.” 🙂
This was worth at least a half dozen laughs from me. 🙂 My meet-cute story (I had never heard of this phrase, sorry) might make the light of day sometime, but he was the only guy who ever tried to pick me up (almost literally) from the local skating rink with the line “If you’d bend your knees a little more, you’d skate better.”
I’ll save the rest of the story for another time. But I loved yours! I knew right away there was a misspelling or two coming.
Thanks for the laughs, Melodie. I love that literal pick up line. Says so much about your Stuart and you that you met this way and are still skating together.
You are a power couple to be sure. It’s the power that comes with being intelligent, curious, strong and respectful of each other. I’ve been admiring your partnership since my GC days in the 80’s when Stuart assured me that I could make a living as a writer. So glad to have stayed in touch over the years & sending big birthday wishes from Texas.
I like your definition of power, Monica, and extend it back to you, since you have the same traits. So glad you found a calling as a writer. It’s a hard thing to do, even for a little while, but you did it! Love to hear from you all the way from Texas!
I was taking a break from William and Mary and teaching fifth grade in 1966, living at home with my parents. A very good-looking guy walked into church at Warwick River Mennonite, not looking like a local with his black onyx ring and sheaf of longish blond hair. (Turns out it was that very haircut that made him unwelcome at his parents’ church and so he had branched out, riding his bicycle to our services)
Turns out he too had gone to William and Mary and had taken the year off, working on a surveying crew and about to be drafted.
When we met, we realized we had W&M in common. He mentioned an event he was going to there that week and wondered if I wanted a ride to the same event. I wasn’t interested in the event but was very interested in those blue eyes, so I said yes, of course.
When I got home and told my 9th grade sister Peggy about it, she was very excited. Not only was Robby really cute but he was her friend Debby’s brother, apparently.
Peggy went to school the next day and told Debby, “Your brother has a date with my sister!”
Debby went home telling Robby, “You have a date with Peggy’s sister!”
“I do?” He answered. “I just offered her a ride, that’s all!”
Long story short, in light of that misunderstanding, Robby called me and turned it into a date by asking if I would have dinner with him after the meeting.
I have no memory of the meeting (did we even go?) But ever since that Brunswick stew and pecan pie in Colonial Williamsburg’s Chowning’s Tavern, we have spent every possible day of our lives together.
“I wasn’t interested in the event but was very interested in those blue eyes, . . ” Classic. And I love the ending too! Thanks, Susan, for adding this gem to our collection of stories. Wishing you and Rob the very best.
Stuart- Happiest of birthdays to my “most loyal fraktur card customer!” I have often referred to you as “Shirley Showalter’s husband” when your orders came in- but going forward will now refer to you as the “former senior editor of The Weather Vane….” when the orders come in. (-: What an honor! Enjoy your birthday….. Lynn
Thanks, Lynn. I’ve never felt diminished by being introduced as “Shirley Showalter’s husband.” Onward!
Sign of a wise man (-:
One of the things I love about Stuart is that he remembers his friends with cards and notes and thinks of a good card as an investment in an artist. I rely on his “stash” of your cards and can always find one that fits my own desire to connect. Thanks for this sweet note. Even without fraktur. 🙂
What a wonderful story! I love it and the photo in front of the Hershey barn.! Have a wonderful birthday Stuart. And may the two of you have many more good years together.
Carolyn, the barn exists only in old photos now, although it was taken down by an Amish crew, so it may exist somewhere else that I am unaware of. Barns, dark hair, strong arms, they all have their day. It is fun, and a little poignant, to see the old photos. And to remember. So grateful for long life and good friends. Thanks for the comment.
Happiest of birthdays to you, Stuart! It’s great to have you and Shirley gracing Lancaster County with your strength, wisdom, and wit. Here’s to a year of learning and joy!
Thank you, Jean. We surely are enjoying our re-rooting in this place. Thanks for helping to keep the stories and places alive!
That’s a great story, Shirley! I love it that you each made a spelling mistake and caught each other doing it! And that is what brought you together! Blundering through life we make lots of mistakes! If we can still laugh about them and continue to love each other, we have the glue that keeps us together!
Elfrieda, I love your synopsis: “Blundering through life we make lots of mistakes! If we can still laugh about them and continue to love each other, we have the glue that keeps us together!”
Exactly.
Happy Birthday Stuart……keep on dancing! Thanks Shirley for your blog. It made my heart happy this morning as I accompany Nathan at UVA and it gave me hope to one day be salsa dancing again!
Beautiful! And a very Happy Birthday to dear Stuart!
Love your meet cute story! Some vows are made to be broken, even if made by an exalted senior about fresh-women.
Our story dates from October 1956 when I agreed to accompany a high school friend to a weekend youth retreat held by her church. We both lived in Queens (NYC) but different neighborhoods and attended different churches. The retreat was held at a conference center in Heart Lake PA. Across a crowded dining hall, my friend pointed out one of the guys she had often told me about. I saw him – tall, dark, handsome – and decided on the spot that I wanted to marry him!
It took him the rest of the weekend to decide to ask me for a date, but he did. I was almost 16; he was almost 19. We’ve been a couple since that first date, married 65+ years, four children, eight grands and two greats.
We visited the Heart Lake center the summer we celebrated out 50th wedding anniversary. At the time, it was a YWAM facility. We were greeted warmly and had a brief tour of the building, but it was the heart-shaped lake that was the most precious sight.
Amazingly, two kids from NYC have ended up at a retirement community in Lancaster County PA!
Happy birthday, Stuart! May you both keep collecting memories.
Ted and I were both freshmen at Goshen College. We were in several of the same classes. After class, in May of that first year, he caught up with me outdoors. It was a rainy and windy day in northern Indiana. What else is new? I knew he was nervous and as he asked me for a date, his umbrella blew inside out. How could I turn him down in that situation. We had 10 dates in that last month of the school year and married 6 weeks after graduating in ’69. We celebrated 55 years this spring
Nothing like a love story to brighten a dull January day. Thanks for having a birthday so we can celebrate with you, Stuart!
I have heard this story before but relish all the details here. Sometimes we trip all over ourselves to make a point. Infatuation will do that to you. 😀
My love story? No need to tell it here as it has been broadcast in my blogposts and two memoirs. As it happens, my one true love has had a birthday this week on January 9. We play tag with our ages and thankful we are still joyfully together after meeting on a blind date in 1965.
Here’s to good health and many more years of salsa dancing!
Happy birthday Stuart! Great story Shirley!
In the spring of 1967 Leon Yost and I first met in NYC when four college women attending a conference at the United Nations had dinner in Chinatown. The hosts were Leon, his roommate, and two Chinese doctors, all residents in NYC and very able guides to us country gals. By the end of the evening Leon and I paired off and strolled the streets of the West Village. Back in college my roommate suggested I write a thank you note to Leon for the lovely evening. Painfully shy (and socially challenged) I ignored her. Besides I was laser-focused on a college art major. Three years later, I was living in NYC for a summer and my roommate at that time kept saying she had a friend I should meet–he was so creative. She arranged a blind date, and it was with Leon! That led to another date. Leon asked me if I attended any of the NYC Mennonite churches. Not wanting to give the wrong answer I asked, “do you,” to which he replied, “I go to museums.” I thought that was a “nice try,” so I inquired what he thought of the current show at the Guggenheim. Leon reached to a bookshelf and pulled off the show’s catalog. We’ve been going to museums for 50+ years!
We met at Goshen College. He was a transfer from Hesston College and had taken a year off to work with Mennonite Disaster Service. I lived in the first co-ed housing on campus on Coffman 2nd South my senior year in 1976-77. We needed another person to move in second trimester in January and someone knew Curt and invited him to live with us. Since he was going to be our new roomie, we all decided we should meet his bus when he returned from SST in Costa Rica in December. I carried his new Costa Rican guitar across campus. He was so worried about the guitar top cracking due to the weather change that he had no idea who I was. We didn’t actually meet one another until a couple weeks into the trimester in January when he ran into me washing out my white nursing uniform hose in the bathroom sink. (I was a nursing student with an early schedule and lots of study time in the nursing lab; I left the dorm way before he got up in the morning and returned late at night after he went to bed. He was a Bible student with a much less demanding schedule. Slacker.) We started dating after graduation and married a year later. The guitar top did indeed crack and is now unplayable and hangs on the wall in our bedroom as decoration, I guess. Maybe I should see about getting it repaired. He’s not really a slacker anymore.