Where did you meet your spouse or significant other?

[miami_fan]

I was having a discussion with a single female friend of mine this week and she told me that she did not feel that she could meet a person for a serious relationship in a bar or club type setting. Now while I did not meet my wife in that type of setting, I knew of several people who did and went on to have very happy marriages. Well after talking with my friend, I did a very informal survey of about 80 married people in my squadron and between 35 to 40 percent of them said they met spouses in bar type of setting. Now I know that number might be skewed in my squadron because of the role the enlisted clubs and such play in military life especially overseas. Some did say they met their spouse/SO in college campus bars and hangouts. Well yesterday, I was talking to a single male friend and when I mentioned it to him he agreed with my female friend. So I figured I would do another informal survey here on FOFC. Where did you meet your spouse or significant other? Also do you agree with my friends that single people can not meet other single people who are in interested in a serious relationship in a bar/club type setting.

[st.cronin]

Pumpy's bedroom.

[Eaglesfan27]

College classroom.

[Lathum]

I went with on the job. I was bartending and her and her roomate came in 2-3 times a week and I got to know her.

[sterlingice]

My option isn't on there :(

SI

[miami_fan]

My option isn't on there :(

SI

Well what was it?

[Lathum]

Well what was it?

champagne room?

[Lorena]

School

[sterlingice]

champagne room?

Damn, you got me ;)

SI

[3ric]

Graduate school... I was 25, she 22

[gottimd]

Undergrad. I was taking an elective called appreciation of music in the summer of my Junior year and she sat behind me.

[JetsIn06]

Mine is kind of a combination between school and the internet. I took a class my freshman year of college, and she was in the class. We never talked other than the occasional "Oh you had that professor? Cool." type small-talk.

About a year later, she added me on facebook, and I was feeling particularly outgoing that night so I sent her a message. We ended up talking online for a long time that night and decided to hang out. As they say, the rest is history.

Edit: I put school because that's where I met her first, technically, but both are equally as important to our getting together.

[RendeR]

Telle and I met entirely through the internet. We both hung out in a EW-TOO type chatroom called "Foothills" we talked pretty constantly for a couple years before she sent me a birthday card profesing her love for me, after a few months of me saying "I'm too old or you" "You should be hanging out with guys your own age" and "You deserve better" she finally was stubborn to the point of visiting me and well, we've been together prety much since then, give or take a few months here and there.

that all started back in 1995...wow, time flies.

[miami_fan]

Zero votes for the bar scene so far.

[Izulde]

Zero votes for the bar scene so far.

Is it really surprising though considering the way the FOFC demographic tilts?

I'd imagine the bar/club scene isn't the place that the geek/intellectual subset finds long-term satisfaction.

[RendeR]

Honestly, the bar scene is probably pretty low on the scale for almost every demographic. As much as people say they go out bar hopping/dancing, clubbing to meet people, in my experience at least, its a really terrible way to meet anyone for a real solid relatoinship.

[VPI97]

Seventh grade

[Flasch186]

The only thing i'd change about my wife is that I'd have her last name be Rockefeller....that and the hunchback could be a little less obvious.

[Cringer]

Back in the day, right after Prodigy started to suck and die and I made the move over to AOL, I met my wife online. She would kill me for not knowing but I think we were 17, could have been 16 though. We talked and wrote for a couple years going on about our life, she even heard about my girlfriends during that time which she will still give me crap about just to bust my balls. At 19 she came up to see me, stayed over a month, went back home, came back up again, and by October I was packing up and moving to south Texas. She was going to move to Spokane, but I said screw it, I wanted something new.

[JeeberD]

At work...we both worked at Wendy's.

[molson]

Work - though it couldn't really start until the day after her last day. (That was some night though).

It's been a challenge in some ways though. She only knew me professionally, and it's been a bit of a tricky conversion, because I have to become somebody that I just wasn't the office. Online or in a bar, when you're starting from scratch, I think it would be easier in some ways.

[flounder]

Playing Sheepshead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheepshead).

[Cringer]

Playing Sheepshead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheepshead).

Was it a blind Sheepshead date/party, or was this playing the game online?

[Cringer]

dola- and I want to the guy one here who got a Russian bride-by-mail to step up and tell us right now, I know there has to be one. :D

[Eaglesfan27]

dola- and I want to the guy one here who got a Russian bride-by-mail to step up and tell us right now, I know there has to be one. :D

A doctor I used to work with did that, I'm 99% sure. I know that she is from Russia, and they always fumble when discussing how they met. He is unattractive and socially awkward, to be polite. She is smokin' hot.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Pumpy's bedroom.
YOU'RE WELCOME

[Cringer]

A doctor I used to work with did that, I'm 99% sure. I know that she is from Russia, and they always fumble when discussing how they met. He is unattractive and socially awkward, to be polite. She is smokin' hot.

And as long as she actually bangs the guy, I have no problem with him 'getting her' that way. :D

[sabotai]

A doctor I used to work with did that, I'm 99% sure. I know that she is from Russia, and they always fumble when discussing how they met. He is unattractive and socially awkward, to be polite. She is smokin' hot.

....mail order bride, eh? Hmmm....

[Huckleberry]

High school sweethearts

[flounder]

Was it a blind Sheepshead date/party, or was this playing the game online?

It was through a bunch of friends. I played basketball with a bunch of physics grad students at the University of Wisconsin and they invited me to sheepshead night at one of their houses. The physics grad student population was overwhelming male so they invited a bunch of biology and sociology grad students (overwhelmingly female) to join us.

Out of about 14 people total, 10 ended up married to each other. Sheepshead: the ultimate matchmaker. :)

[bhlloy]

Is it really surprising though considering the way the FOFC demographic tilts?

I'd imagine the bar/club scene isn't the place that the geek/intellectual subset finds long-term satisfaction.

Both bar/club and school would have both been correct technically, but I went with bar/club, now I look like the shallow member of the board... seriously, I would have thought at least a couple of others would have met this way. Very interesting

[PurdueBrad]

Work, we're teachers. The wife was engaged to a not-so-nice teacher in our building, that fell apart, I helped her out with a place to stay and she never left.

[Logan]

I don't remember it, but I believe I met my right hand shortly after birth.

[tarcone]

Work, We are also teachers.

[Raiders Army]

high school.

[Danny]

Work, I was a checker at Vons, she was a teller at the bank that is inside the store. Neither one of us applied to or had wanted to work at the particular store we ended up at. We also went to the same university, but likely would have never seen each other as our departments were not close to each other.

[Mustang]

Internet matchmaking site. (No, not Eharmony. Might have been matchmaker, but I can't remember)

[JeeberD]

A doctor I used to work with did that, I'm 99% sure. I know that she is from Russia, and they always fumble when discussing how they met. He is unattractive and socially awkward, to be polite. She is smokin' hot.

My best friend worked for a vet who got one from South America. Problem is, she barely spoke any english, and he barely spoke any spanish. She got bored sitting at home while he was at work, so she got a job at a nearby mexican bakery...and ran off with one of the dudes who worked there.

[Izulde]

My best friend worked for a vet who got one from South America. Problem is, she barely spoke any english, and he barely spoke any spanish. She got bored sitting at home while he was at work, so she got a job at a nearby mexican bakery...and ran off with one of the dudes who worked there.

That's hilarious.

[miami_fan]

Both bar/club and school would have both been correct technically, but I went with bar/club, now I look like the shallow member of the board... seriously, I would have thought at least a couple of others would have met this way. Very interesting

That was why I asked the question;)

I don't know what percentage I expected. I think the absolute nature with which they stated their opinions in spite of the evidence that others do meet that way is what made me so curious.

[miami_fan]

I am also suprised that church has such a low number as well.

[Logan]

The bar scene is interesting. I think there's just something innate in us where two people can look at each other, be interested, and know whether that interest is for a hook up or to actually date. I've met girls in bars for both, and it seemed like I didn't consciously make a decision for which group any particular girl fits into.

[Izulde]

I am also suprised that church has such a low number as well.

This doesn't surprise me, if only because I've never known anyone to actually meet someone in church and when I've had a couple people (mostly older women) mention that as an option, I privately consider them as going senile.

What -does- surprise me is how high a percentage of Through the Internet votes there are. Goes to show far we've come from the early days when internet relationships carried a huge social stigma.

[JAG]

At a bus stop.

[Sun Tzu]

Fishing for trout.

[Emiliano]

Gym.

[Capital]

Through friends, but really a blind date at a restaurant.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Been together nearly 5 years now(May anniv for 5), married for over two. Met in a South Buffalo bar. I tended to hang out with the biker/gang banger type crowd(I was in my early 2nd childhood at 36). When we met I had torn jeans, black leather and bandanna. She wore a half sweater, fancy shirt and a jean skirt.Oh yeah, I was barely holding up the bar.Somehow I was less annoying than I thought......

Now I have no problem wearing pink Izods.......... Boys, stay away from accountants of the female persuasion.

[hawk4669]

Internet...AOL to be exact. For years I felt a little weird about it....but over ten years married, three great children, and still very deeply in love with her can't be all wrong.

Cheers!

[Logan]

Boys, stay away from accountants of the female persuasion.

I think Pumpy already learned this lesson.

[Apathetic Lurker]

I think Pumpy already learned this lesson.


but Pumpy was probably not stinking drunk when the claws got imbedded

[MrDNA]

In prison.

Seriously.

We were both working as actors in a haunted prison attraction. Real prison: Eastern State Pennitentiary in Philadelphia. Spooky place, but spookier relationship: we've been together 7 years.

[Apathetic Lurker]

In prison.

Seriously.

We were both working as actors in a haunted prison attraction. Real prison: Eastern State Pennitentiary in Philadelphia. Spooky place, but spookier relationship: we've been together 7 years.


That first line is so wrong....I can't even put into writing what my first impression was

[johnnyshaka]

I chose Bar/Club as my wife and I met in the beer tent at a charity walk/run relay event.

[AZSpeechCoach]

I walked into the Extemporaneous Prep room at the Glendale Community College tournament my freshman year of college. There was one table left that could accommodate my Extemp tubs. At the end of the table was a cute woman I hadn't seen before. I asked her if there was any room, and there was. She was from a California college; I was from ASU. I spent the entire weekend making excuses to talk to her. Two months later, we saw each other at another tournament and I made sure to give her my address and phone number before I left. She felt bad that she didn't give me her information and sent me a letter that week. We wrote back and forth, started chatting online, and I felt a connection growing. Right before a tournament the following September, we were chatting online and I said I probably wasn't going to the competition, but that if I did, I'd take her out to dinner. She said that her new boyfriend wouldn't like that. I told her that I was sad because I was hoping to be her boyfriend. I went to the tournament in Fresno anyway, saw her, something unspoken passed between us, and by the time we met up again the next month at SDSU, we were a couple. The following summer, she moved to Phoenix, and the rest is history.

Sorry for the novel :)

[Pumpy Tudors]

I'm not feeling very well this morning, so I'm just gonna phone this one in. Imagine that I just said something really funny about chasing my wife with a nail gun and her slipping in a strategically-placed puddle of peanut butter in a sauna.

[jeheinz72]

I'm not feeling very well this morning, so I'm just gonna phone this one in. Imagine that I just said something really funny about chasing my wife with a nail gun and her slipping in a strategically-placed puddle of peanut butter in a sauna.

You too eh?

[Young Drachma]

I walked into the Extemporaneous Prep room at the Glendale Community College tournament my freshman year of college. There was one table left that could accommodate my Extemp tubs. At the end of the table was a cute woman I hadn't seen before. I asked her if there was any room, and there was. She was from a California college; I was from ASU. I spent the entire weekend making excuses to talk to her. Two months later, we saw each other at another tournament and I made sure to give her my address and phone number before I left. She felt bad that she didn't give me her information and sent me a letter that week. We wrote back and forth, started chatting online, and I felt a connection growing. Right before a tournament the following September, we were chatting online and I said I probably wasn't going to the competition, but that if I did, I'd take her out to dinner. She said that her new boyfriend wouldn't like that. I told her that I was sad because I was hoping to be her boyfriend. I went to the tournament in Fresno anyway, saw her, something unspoken passed between us, and by the time we met up again the next month at SDSU, we were a couple. The following summer, she moved to Phoenix, and the rest is history.

Sorry for the novel :)

At least you didn't marry one of your students. That's the "other" speech & debate love story. ;)

[bulletsponge]

where's the "Mail order" option? :)

[AZSpeechCoach]

At least you didn't marry one of your students. That's the "other" speech & debate love story. ;)

Yeah...we've had way too much of that over the years...I'm sticking with people my own age :)

[Mac Howard]

Heathrow airport. She'd just flown in from Australia and I was picking her up as a favour to her family.

[korme]

She saw my television commercial spots on TV and as they say the rest is history

http://oliverwillis.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/03/enzyteguy.jpg

[Galaxy]

A doctor I used to work with did that, I'm 99% sure. I know that she is from Russia, and they always fumble when discussing how they met. He is unattractive and socially awkward, to be polite. She is smokin' hot.

An old thread, but we have a local doctor in our small town like this. I "think" they live in separate houses from what I've heard. I guess he is rather odd, but hell of a doctor.

[Galaxy]

Honestly, the bar scene is probably pretty low on the scale for almost every demographic. As much as people say they go out bar hopping/dancing, clubbing to meet people, in my experience at least, its a really terrible way to meet anyone for a real solid relatoinship.

Would parties fall into the same category (and I don't necessary mean the get drunk and keg parties either, but the more grown-up, sophisticated parties).

[clemsonfan]

We met in a chat room back in 1997.

[CamEdwards]

We met in a chat room back in 1997.

Heh. I met my wife in a chat room back in 1996.

[stevew]

In college, we were both on the activities committee.

[path12]

Speed dating.

[Mrs. Schmidty]

eHarmony. Yep, that's right, eHarmony. I would say the match was pretty darn spot on. I can't imagine anyone else wanting to put up with either of us! ;)