How We Met

This "coincidence" tells the story of how my wife and I first saw each other, and subsequently met.

I was a senior EE student at UC Berkeley, and I lived with a bunch of other fellows in a rooming house on Hillegass St., on the south side of the Berkeley campus. Being an engineer at heart, I was also a bit on the lonesome side, studying so hard that I hadn't made any female friends to speak of. But I had made a list of attributes that I wanted my "ideal woman" to have. I can't even remember all the things on the list, but I do remember the top item: "Shall not be a smoker!" You see, I came from a family where my parents both smoked, my three older sisters all smoked, and I personally hated all the smells associated with the habit. I took one puff of a cigarette when I was about ten, and practically choked! I decided that would never be for me.

So one Sunday, about the middle of October 1961, I had just done my laundry at a laundromat on Telegraph Avenue, and had entered the "Park & Shop" supermarket, where I'd bought my Sunday feast, consisting of a can of tuna (it cost me $0.23 in those days!) and a package of French rolls. I was getting ready to leave the market, had my laundry in a pillowcase over my shoulder, my groceries in the other hand, and I happened to glance over at the checkout stand. There was a girl buying just one item: a pack of Salem cigarettes! Something about this girl fired up my senses, and I immediately declared to myself: "There goes THAT list!" It was literally love at first sight.

So the girl left the store with me not far behind, and as she walked up the street, it became obvious that she also lived on Hillegass St., just a little bit closer to campus than myself. As she turned off the street up to her walk-up apartment, I said "Our ways must part." She turned and smiled at me, and THAT WAS IT! I went on home, determined not to let the matter drop.

Two weeks later, it was Halloween, and I was walking home about 7 PM, and I saw a Jack-O-Lantern on the landing of this girl's apartment. So I went home, put on my sneakers, and went back there. I snuck up the steps to their landing, picked up the Jack-O-Lantern, and I stomped down the steps. I went home and put it up in one of the front windows of our rooming house. Then I told some trick-or-treaters that "If any girls down the street are looking for their Jack-O-Lantern, tell them it's here." Sure enough, about half an hour later, three girls came walking down the street, and I was outside, awaiting their visit. When they saw it up in our window, they naturally wanted it back, but I said, "I've gotta study right now, but I can bring it back around 10, OK?" I was greeted with a warm reception, for sure.

We got married on September 8th of 1962, ten months later. And my wife never smoked around me while we were courting, and smoked her last cigarette on the day we got married.