Boy Meets Girl

Sharing Stories

At 19, I paid for our wedding, including the big cake and beautiful dress.
| June 26, 2022

Boy Meets Girl

I had just been turned loose from the US Navy, and I was walking down the street in West Seattle, so happy to be a civilian again.

I stopped in downtown Seattle, traded my uniform for Levis, a white tee shirt, and a pair of loafers that needed a dime in each tongue.

God, it felt good to be out of uniform!

I took a bus to get to my parents’ house, but the first person I met was a beautiful little blonde. She had three young children with her. I remarked that she must have started having children at eight or nine. She laughed—said the kids belonged to her sister. We both smiled.

I melted.

Later that night, we went to the Spanish Castle to dance the night away. This night was the start of a romance that lasted 68 years. How lucky can one guy be? The only thing that happened to this romance was that it just got better.

We fit each other. I saw her every day. We laughed, danced, swam at Angle Lake. I couldn’t get enough of her. The day she left to return to Cheyenne, Wyoming, was a sad day for me.
We wrote to each other for a year. When the next summer arrived, I told her, you don’t get to go back—EVER!

Roger Wilson of Seattle, Washington first wrote Loving Life: A Roughneck’s Guide to Having It All! https://www.amazon.com/Loving-Life-Roughnecks-Guide-Having/dp/1515096955

He followed this with the story of his marriage called Loving Wife: Roughneck Guide to a Happy Marriage https://www.amazon.com/Loving-Wife-Roughneck-Guide-Marriage-ebook/dp/B00RPBD59U

SHARING STORIES is a weekly column for and about the 50 plus crowd living in the Puget Sound region. Send your stories and photos to ariele@comcast.net. Tell local or personal stories; discuss concerns around aging and other issues; share solutions, good luck, and reasons to celebrate; poems are fine too. Pieces may be edited or excerpted. We reserve the right to select among pieces. Photos are always a plus and a one-sentence bio is requested (where you live, maybe age or career, retired status, etc.).

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