Love story from the vault
I’m very lucky to be able to call my grandparents two of my best friends. That’s why when I was listening to Taylor Swift’s “Marjorie,” about her late grandmother, I was a bit shocked by how little I really know about my grandparents and their lives. Taylor beautifully sings, “I should’ve asked you questions. I should’ve asked you how to be, asked you to write it down for me.”
Since then, I’ve been emailing my grandma (she’s the tech savvy one) questions every week about her life with my grandpa. So in honor of celebrating love this month, here is the story of how my grandparents met in the ‘60s and how their relationship progressed, in their own words… enjoy!
My grandma’s side of the story
GRANDMA - In 1968 I was a flight attendant. I had been flying for about 3 years at that time. It was during the Vietnam war so I was flying on MAC (Military Air Charters) flights carrying military personnel to bases in Vietnam and Japan. A typical trip usually included layovers in Honolulu, the Philippines, and Japan. On this trip we flew from Tokyo to a base in Guam. We were there for five days, which was an unusually long layover, and Guam was not a place we normally went to. At that time there was only one seedy hotel on the island, so we were put there. As you might imagine, we had plenty of attention from Navy guys. Someone I knew in Honolulu tipped them off that we were coming and I was met and escorted by one particular guy much of the time.
We then flew to Honolulu with a whole crew aboard. When we got to the hotel, the other four girls on the flight decided to go to a restaurant across from our hotel. It was a bar, Shipwreck Kelly’s, with Hawaiian entertainment, on Waikiki Beach. (John and I went by there years later on a trip to Hawaii and found it was gone.) I wasn’t in the mood to go out and be sociable after 5 days on a base, and almost didn’t go. When we entered the bar, it was crowded but there was a big booth in a corner. One guy, guess who, spotted us and waved us over. I ended up sitting next to him, and the rest is history. I was like, “Oh no,” and I told him I had had enough of submariners for a while. (In a nice way, kind of joking.) After a while we girls decided to go to another place nearby. And after a short while those same guys showed up. I danced with John and he walked me back to the hotel. He called the next day and we went out for hot dogs. After that, we saw each other two or three times a month on my trips . If I arrived when he wasn’t on duty, he always met me at the plane with a flower lei.
My grandpa’s side of the story
GRANDPA - Now you get the true story.
I had been on patrol in the submarine for three weeks, 21 days, when we returned to Pearl Harbor. A bunch of the crew went to the Acey Duecy to have a cold one - no alcohol on board the boat. I sat there and looked around and thought that I just spent 21 days looking at these guys at 400 feet and told one of my buddies, “Let's go to Waikiki beach and look at something better than what we’ve been looking at for three weeks.” Shipwreck Kelly was the place to go. Sitting in a booth in the corner, I noticed a group of 5 women come into the bar - and being the shy and quiet guy that I was - waved for them to join us. After talk and conversation and all, we decided to go around the corner to another bar for some dancing. We were leaving and I had to say goodbye to someone. Four women said to wait for me – one said, “Don’t wait, he’ll catch up later.” Guess who the one was?
My grandma’s take on what happened next
GRANDMA - Well, we met, saw each other on each of my trips thru Hawaii, he came to San Francisco a couple times during the year, He sent lots of cards, we talked on the phone some, but long distance was expensive then. No texting, FaceTime, etc. At Christmas he got leave and we flew to my home town for a few days and he met my parents and siblings. Then on to his home town for Christmas Eve and day. We were met at the airport by a slew of family, including his cousin. His parents had a Christmas Eve party with relatives and friends. Kind of overwhelming.
The proposal was not your usual, down on the knees picture book event. When he was on patrol for 88 days he wrote a long letter in which he asked me to marry him. I looked for it just now but haven’t found it. When he was in San Francisco, I was living in Tiburon. One day we were looking for the Cliff House, a restaurant overlooking the ocean, where he was going to give me a ring. We never found Cliff House, so he gave the ring to me when we got back to my apartment!
I asked my grandma to find THE letter… 80+ pages, ladies!
Some takeaways: my standards are very high thanks to my grandpa, talk to your grandparents because they have the best stories that you’ll want to remember forever and ever, and listen to Taylor Swift always. You never know what she may inspire you to do next.
