Family Photo Friday: Happy V-Day

Happy belated Valentine's Day (or as my dear friend Kitty always calls it, V-D Day), if you're into that kind of thing. So far in these family photo things I've been mostly talking about my mom's family. This isn't a prejudice, it's just that I don't know quite as much about my dad's fam. My dad has never talked a whole lot about his family; he only has one brother who I don't see a whole lot; his dad passed away some years ago and was never very chatty about such things; and his mom, my Grandma Vi tends to... well, we'll call it exaggerating. I can't really fault her, as, ahem, creative embellishment is a trait shared by both my father and myself as well, but it's really hard to believe much that she says. And as she gets older her memory gets more creative. So take the following story with a grain of salt.

The above photo is the portrait taken at Grandma Vi and Grandpa George's wedding in about 1941 or so. I don't know many details about their wedding -- although they claim they had to run away to get hitched because neither's parents approved of their engagement. But, here's the story of how they (and I do stress, allegedly) met. My grandfather worked as a refrigeration repair technician and my grandmother worked as a receptionist at some company that he had to call often. They came to recognize each other's voices and took to flirting on the phone. Vi claims that his voice was rather sexy.

So, one night, Vi was out bowling with some girlfriends. Apparently, my clumsy ways were also inherited from her and as she lobbed the ball down the alley her feet fell out from under her and she went sliding to the ground. A gentleman from the next lane walked over and said "Can I help you up?" She immediately looked up at him, recognized that sexy voice and said "George?" To which he replied, "Vi?" And they lived happily ever after.

Up until the time of his death, George liked to say "Yup, I picked her up out of the gutter." He meant it to be charming and she always thought it was.


In other news, Aaron really pulled one out of the hat for our Valentines Day. Much to my horror, he's been out of town for work a lot lately (I'll remind you I'm eight months pregnant!) and he came home from New York yesterday with cupcakes from Magnolia. I know people who live in NYC are totally over Magnolia, but in these parts they're quite an exotic treat from my sweet.