A Favorite Story

The story of how my parents met is one of my favorites. I never get tired of hearing it. The Reader's Digest version goes something like this:

Once upon a time, a twenty-something named Nancy decided to leave city life behind and move from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Missoula, Montana. She packed her VW Bug with her belongings and drove out west for a change of scenery and new adventures.  Nancy informed her new friends and acquaintances that she was looking for a red-headed farmer to marry.  Well, one day it turned out that some friends did know a red-headed farmer and she was promptly set-up on a blind date.  The farmer's name was Garr.  On the first date, he thought the city girl asked lots of silly questions about farm life, animals, and the such but the two continued to go on more dates and eventually fell in love and were married.  If you ask Nancy the moral of this story, she will tell you, "It pays to advertise!"

It wasn't until recently that I found out that my parents went rollerskating on their first date. When they were younger, my mom was super athletic, but my dad wasn't. However, he did love rollerskating and went often enough that he was pretty good.  My mom said she was so impressed by his skating abilities and got very excited that her red-headed man was not only a farmer, but an athlete, too!  It wasn't until later that she learned he didn't quite excel in all sporting activities. In the end it didn't matter because all of his great qualities made up for him not being an Olympian. (And because my mom was so athletic, all those brothers of mine still had someone to teach them to ski and throw a ball so it all ends well.)

We've been trying to get together with my parents once a month for a double date.  After learning more about their first date, we thought it was only fitting to headed over to Hollywood Connection for some skating.  

  At the end of the skating session, everyone was invited to participate in the game Shark Attack.  Two skaters were designated as the sharks and they went around tagging people out. The last skater remaining won a free skate pass.  And what do you know- my mom still has it after all these years... She won! If you look at the above photo, she is the blur on the left side.  Looks like we'll be going skating again soon!