How My Dad Met My Mom

I asked the kids what story they wanted to hear about from their grandpa and Madie wanted to know how dad met mom. So, here's the story:

Dad was a freshman at Philadelphia College of Bible and his friend Ron Roberts was friends with mom. Her name was "Roper" and his was "Roberts", so they sat next to each other in several classes and were friends. So, towards the end of dad's freshman year, he had been introduced to and started to get to know mom. They went away for the summer, didn't correspond or anything, but when their sophmore year started, they became better friends. Mom was dating a friend of dad's named Cruiser Baxter and dad briefly dated mom's roommate, but mom and dad just sort of hit it off and would pal around together and really just had a great friendship. Towards the end of their sophmore year both mom and dad went to an end of the year campout for all the sophmore class. It was a small class of about 150 and the chaperone was mom's roommate's brother who was studying to become a minister. He decided to do a mock wedding ceremony to practice and dad asked mom if she would be in the wedding with him. She said yes, so this guy mock-married mom and dad. When they got back to school that Monday, dad would call her "wife" (something he still does to this day) and even got her a little fake ring, which she wore. She would write him notes signing them "from your wife" and dad would write her notes saying "your husband John". Even though they were dating other people, they continued to write during the summer and dad said he looked so forward to letters from her. They were falling in love through their letters and not even really realizing it. :-) A couple months after they returned to school, mom said to him, "Are you ever going to ask me out?" "Well, sure." he said and he invited her to come back to his hometown of Runnemede (since he was a commuter) to go to a football game at his old high school on Nov. 2, 1968. Now, because this was a conservative christian college, they weren't allowed to touch, but after they got off school property and made their way to the bus stop, dad reached over and started holding her hand. And, she let him. They took the bus to his house and he introduced her to the family. He said Grandpa loved her instantly and she just fit right in, helping around the house and everything. When he said goodnight to her that night, he told her he had a wonderful time and said goodbye. No kiss or anything. And, she said the same. That night he couldn't sleep. He realized he loved her. They dated 2 more years after that. He proposed to her before he left for seminary and they got married after his freshman year at Grace, in 1971. They just celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary last month and it all started with a mock wedding in 1968.

Gotta Love our Moms :-)

His mom used to get him very practical gifts as a child. Socks, shirts, etc… Usually some type of clothes. A young boy does NOT like clothes, so he was never particularly happy with those gifts. His Aunt Anne asked him every year what he wanted for his birthday and every time he would say, "Anything but clothes." Yet, every year she too would give him clothes. Well, one year his Aunt Francis, his mom’s other sister, gave him $2. $2!!! That was HUGE in the 1950s! It was like $20 today. When his allowance at that time was 10 cents, $2 was unbelievable!! His mom saw that he got that money and said, "Here, I’ll take care of this for you." And she went out and bought him socks with it. SOCKS! Like he said, "I could’ve bought 2 boxes of baseball cards with that money and she bought me socks!!". He said he still hasn’t forgiven her for that. Poor guy.

Creative!

Gramps could obviously be very creative when it came to Christmas presents. There was the ashtray incident I spoke of earlier. And, then another year it was a certain reminder of an earlier mishap with one of his kids. Dad’s brother Carl had a tendency to get in trouble and find mischief at every turn. One time he had decided to jump off his friend’s porch and accidentally broke his arm in the process. Well, that Christmas one of Carl’s presents was his x-ray. "Since your xray cost so much, we figured we’d give it to as a gift." Gramps told him. I love his sense of humor!

Thank You For Not Smoking

As I said in the entry below, there was a Christmas where dad didn't get off as lucky as he did that year. One Christmas he ended up with only a single present. And, it was definitely NOT what he asked Santa for. He was about 11, maybe 12 at the oldest, and all summer he and his brother had taken to smoking. There was an empty lot across the street next to the school and they would climb up the tree, hide there and smoke and curse and do things they thought made them extra cool. Well, one day in September, their sister Debbie was supposed to come get them and have them come home for supper. Well, she saw them smoking and said, "I saw what you did and I'm telling!". Plus, little did they know, but their mom had also seen them. They went home for supper, fully expecting to be in HUGE amounts of trouble from their dad, but he didn't say a word. Hmm... they thought.... maybe Debbie didn't rat us out after all. And, it was apparent that their mom hadn't said anything either, because nothing was said that night or many, many nights to follow. They got away with it! Four months later, Christmas rolls around. It was Christmas Eve night and my dad and his brother and sisters opened their presents on Christmas Eve in the evenings after supper, instead of Christmas morning. His dad would always bring out bags that had their presents in them. And, dad said that Gramps always gave them toys and cool stuff, where as their mom would give them socks and shirts and things like that. So, the time had come when Gramps brought out the bags. They were excited to see what great things he got them that year. As they were handed the gift, wrapped up in paper, they quickly opened it to see what they got. Inside they didn't find the newest baseball game or a new truck. No. Instead, both Carl and Dad opened up their gift to find an ashtray inside. "Thought you got away with it, didn't you?" Grandpa said to them. They were shocked! After all those months of nothing, they thought surely their summer indiscretions were just a thing of the past and here the product of their deeds was sitting in their hands. They cried and cried as they realized that they had been caught and that their punishment was a Christmas without presents. Only a single ashtray to last for another 365 days. At their weeping, their mom said, "Oh Carl, give them their presents." Gramps had gotten them REAL presents that year, but the point had been made. Dad still isn't sure if his mom or his sister told his dad about what they saw. But whoever did was responsible for helping aid his dad in making a very lasting impression on a 11 yr old that Christmas Eve back in the late '50s. Something he still remembers over half a century later.

Spit Wads

That same year dad was suspended from school. This teacher, that I mentioned in the previous entry, thought that if she needed the class’ attention, all she had to do was stand at the front of the class with her arms crossed and that they would settle down. Well, obviously that didn’t work and soon they were causing all sorts of ruckuses. Just a day before Christmas break was to start, dad was taking jaw breaker boxes, chewing them up, and making spit wads, which he was spitting across the room. Another teacher, Mrs. Forneron was walking by and saw him do this. As she walked into class, he spit one and it actually hit her on the left breasticle (as he points out). She immediantely called him out to the hall and was talking to him about these spit wads. Well, as any young NJ boy would talk, he answered her questions with "Yea". "Yes, Ma’m" she would correct him in saying. Well, he didn’t catch on and after he answered with a few more "yea’s",. she decided that he just needed to go home. A half day left before christmas break and he was being suspended for spit wads. Well, she called his dad and told him that "Mark was being sent home early". Which meant, gramps had to walk through the snow 1 mile to pick up dad for being "disruptive". Dad said that walk home was a nightmare. There was no talking, only silence and he knew what was going to happen when he walked in that door. He said Gramps was so mad at him that after his painful punishment he told him he wasn’t getting Christmas that year. Dad panicked! He did everything he could to help his mom out after that, just hoping that she would intercede on his behalf. He helped her finish up the Christmas decorating, anything he could to get on her good side. Well, it must’ve worked, because Gramps recanted and dad got to have his Christmas presents after all. There was a Christmas though, where he wasn’t quite as lucky…. I’ll post about THAT next.

Compass Anyone?

The first year dad was a freshman – yes, he was a freshman twice – he was probably only 4’8", 87 lbs. A tiny little guy. He was in class. Patricia Dunbar sat on his right and Sandy Shepherd sat on his left. He describes Sandy as being a pretty big girl. Several inches taller than he was, as well as several pounds. Anyway, Patricia and her friend Diana Tursi were playing the "Flip the Skirt" game. He said they had both gone to catholic school the year before and were wearing these plaid skirts and to a 15 yr old, plaid skirts and a flip the skirt game were quite enticing to watch. Well, apparently Sandy didn’t like dad watching this and he felt a punch in his left leg. He looks down and finds a compass sticking out of his leg. Sandy had stabbed him!!! He raises his hand and the teacher comes back and he says, "Sandy stabbed me in the leg with her compass!". "Well, what did you do to her?" the teacher asked. Do to her?!! She stabbed me! The teacher walked off and he was left to pull the compass out of his leg and hand it back to Sandy – which he said scared him, because he wasn’t sure what else she’d do with it!

Alberta

Alberta was my grandpa’s cousin. She was really the only relative that Grandpa had – or liked for that matter. Alberta was probably a good 10 yrs younger than Grandpa, but because he didn’t have any brothers or sisters, they were very close. Which meant, Alberta was very close to his family – my dad and his siblings. He says that she was by far their favorite cousin! Why you ask? Well, because every time she would come visit them, she would bring bags of toys for them. Every time! Alberta was single until her late 40s/early 50s and never had children of her own, so she would give all that love to the Drexler kids. She was a secretary at a law firm in Philly and when she would come to visit them, she would take a bus. Dad said he and his brother and sisters would sit on the top step of their house, when they knew Alberta was coming, and wait for her to come. Every time a bus would drive by, they’d look to see if it was her bus. Then, as soon as they saw her walking towards them, they’d run up to her and help her carry the bags she brought. Because, as dad says, she would bring grocery bags full of toys for them. Whether it was Christmas time or the middle of May. She would bring them something and they loved her for it!