Friday, August 21, 2015

Sepia Saturday: Before e-Harmony

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.



This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt featuring vending machines triggers a very faint memory of having once dined in an automat. Unfortunately the memory is so faint that no real story emerges, and certainly there is no photo. A more vivid dining memory is from my college days.

When I arrived at Madison College (now James Madison University – GO DUKES!), Gibbons Hall was a mere 5-years old.

Gibbons Hall JMU 1969  http://jollettetc.blogspot.com
Gibbons Hall -- the D-Hall October 1969
You would think people would have been used to the unusual architecture by then, but Gibbons continued to inspire debate. Round and constructed of brick, it was the first building to depart from the traditional bluestone Madison has become known for. Gibbons was also the first building on the new “back campus.” While a dining room was always available from the earliest years of the college, Gibbons was the first building dedicated to food. On the upper level, eight dining rooms were arranged like slices of pie around a central kitchen. The lower level housed the post office, bookstore, and lounge for day students.

It was during my freshman year that I met Hugh, Keith, and Tom. They were day students who no doubt took full advantage of that day lounge. With the aid of a student directory they made random phone calls to girls in the dorms just to see who would talk with them. Being the pathetic person that I am, I talked. Fast forward to my sophomore year. Hugh, Keith, and Tom were back to their old tricks calling girls again. They called. We talked.

Typical scene at meal time at the D-Hall in the 1970s
image from JMU Library Special Collections
One day I was at the D-Hall with friends. I saw the three guys plus one new one. The new guy was light-haired and had a big smile. He laughed a lot and seemed very friendly. He also had a big appetite. And why not? The food on our campus always ranked among the best in the nation according to the Princeton Review. Homemade rolls every night. Homemade apple dumplings – I always went back for seconds (and yes, thirds). Saturday lunch alternated between open-face roast beef sandwiches and subs. But I digress.

Later that night the phone rang, and it was those guys again. I mentioned that I noticed they had a new person with them and wondered who he was. Keith said, “Oh, that’s Barry. Do you want to date him?” Heck no – I was just making conversation.

Once inside Gibbons, hungry students
climbed these stairs to the D-Hall
It wasn’t long – a couple of days maybe – that I received a phone call from none other than the new guy. No telling what the others had told him about me. One call led to another. We talked many times without ever meeting. Even though I knew Barry on sight, he didn’t know me. He must have felt like a stalking victim whenever I said, “I saw you at the D-Hall.”

So finally Barry got up the nerve and asked me out – probably just to shake that eerie feeling of being watched. When I said, “Yes,” he added, “And if you see me, introduce yourself.”

That opportunity presented itself a day or two before our scheduled date. I was heading to the D-Hall for some lunch just as Barry was leaving. There he was – I had better say something, I thought. I have no recollection of what I said although Barry’s version of this story is, “Hi Barry, I’m your date.” I KNOW I would not have said that – it’s much too dorky, even for me. The part of the story that I remember is that he always told people that after we each went our merry way, he regretted not looking back to check out my legs. HA HA – the joke would have been on him as I was wearing an olive green plaid dress with olive green tights. Oh, smokin’ hot!

Gibbons Hall - where Barry and I first met
Yellow arrow: I was heading down the steps.
Purple arrow: Barry was leaving the D-Hall
and heading towards the steps.

And the rest is history. In those days there was no Match dot com. No e-Harmony. Still, lots of romances began at the D-Hall.

See who else is dining out at Sepia Saturday.


© 2015, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

36 comments:

  1. Romance outside a dining hall? My parents met when somebody locked them in a closet together; you and Barry outside a dining hall is just as ridiculous...but fun!

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    1. They weren't playing Spin the Bottle, were they? Now I wonder why two people even went to the same closet. Some kind of supply closet?

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  2. I'm wondering how you knew that the guys you saw were the ones who had been randomly calling. The university cafeteria was generally somewhere I avoided unless I was with friends, as people always seemed to gather there in large groups. My husband and I met on a walk from the law school to the law courts for a tour there. He was a year ahead but had missed doing it the previous year.

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    1. Easy -- Student Directory and of course, by the second year, I had seen our yearbook from our Freshman year.

      Your "how we met" story is a good one -- quite natural way to meet.

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  3. How cute; great story of how the two of you met! The food sounds delicious too! I can't imagine how anyone might be thin after eating that type of yummy food on a regular basis!

    betty

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    1. Right -- thus the term "Freshman Fifteen" emerged to describe that weight gain.

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  4. Awww! What a fun story about how you and Barry met.

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  5. Wendy,

    I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2015/08/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-august-21.html

    Have a great weekend!

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  6. What a great story – thanks for making me smile. I met my future husband at a petrol station, and neither of us had a car – long story, maybe I will tell it one day.

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    1. Oh, you must tell that one. I'm very curious why you were at the gas station. Of course, these days most gas stations have some kind of convenience store attached where you can get a snack.

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  7. Gibbons Hall is certainly an interesting bit of architecture! I don't know about green tights detracting from a pair of legs? I wore a forest green sweater, red & green plaid mini skirt and dark green cable-knit tights with red sling-back pumps to work one time & my boss wanted to know when the dancing started. :) Charming story of how you & Barry met. My husband & I met at the beach when a friend of his threw a football over his head & it landed on my beach towel.

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    1. Your outfit sounds quite festive too. As for "how we met" stories, yours sounds like it was straight out of an Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon movie!

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  8. Clearly there are better chances for counter-clockwise people to meet clockwise people in a round hall. No corners to hide in either.

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    1. Whew - that took me a few minutes to figure out. I'm glad I was the clockwise person - I don't like going against the grain.

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  9. You could make a romantic fiction short story out of that! My husband and I met over the counter at a teacher training college. He was the teacher and I was the librarian at the counter!

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    1. Ahh -- for a moment, I was afraid you were a student in that story.

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  10. This was a fun way to tell the story of how you and Barry met, Wendy. Interesting architecture, your Gibbons Hall. I've always been fascinated by round buildings and round rooms.

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    1. Yeah, when I see a round house or some geodesic house, I WANT to go inside just to see how people arrange their furniture.

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  11. That was a lovely feel-good story. Should be more of them

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    1. This week seems to have lots of happy stories.

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  12. What a great story and so very well told, with diagrams and everything. I actually did meet my husband on Match.com (very practical for older folks who have no chance of being locked in closet with a prospective husband.) Three servings of apple dumplings! - ah the good old days when we'd ingest so many calories and burn it off.

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    1. I know several Match success stories and one "Personals Column" from those days before the Internet.

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  13. Cool story! And cool building too. My dorm didnt have phones except one pay phone per floor. Seems like it only rang when there was bad news for someone.

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    1. Phones in every room -- that was relatively new when I started college. But where my sister went, there was just a community phone in the hall.

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  14. Fun to hear how your romance started, back in the "olden days" when people actually talked on the phone! (vs texting and facebooking) Fun story!

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    1. Good observation. Whenever the phone rings in my house, there's a 90% chance it's a computer calling.

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  15. Such a sweet story!
    I knew vending machines early on as my parents were on bowling leagues. I would get a dime for a candy....and I wish I had saved a few of those dimes as they were often the Liberty Winged Mercury dimes.

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    1. I have not seen one of those dimes in years. But you're right - as a kid I thought it was a real special treat to get a candy bar or a drink out of a machine.

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  16. Wendy ! What a fantastic story. I loved it.

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  17. Wendy, such a good story teller you are! I giggled and chuckled my way through to the "smokin' hot" olive green tights! Very fun -- and interesting.

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    1. I always appreciate a good audience. Thanks for the nice comments.

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  18. "the part of the story that I remember is that he always told people that after we each went our merry way". You could have made that our MARRY way :-)

    I loved the story!

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    1. Oh Debi, you're too good! I should have sent you a rough draft before posting.

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