Family:Richard Borgwardt and Lois Perrine (2)

How I met My Husband, by Lois (Perrine) Borgwardt

I met my husband on January 15th 1948 at the YWCA in Oakland, Californai when I was 19 years old. We belonged to a Veterans Club which was like a USO except it was for veterans.

I did not know he was a member as I had not been there for some time because I had sworn off men. My boyfriend and I had broken up some months before and I decided that was it with men period.

I was taking a class at the Y and thought I would stop in and see some of my old friends and when I said I was leaving one fellow asked where I lived and when I told him East Oakland he said too bad as he lived in Berkeley as if I stopped by for a ride. Another reason I had had it with men! My husband said he would take me as he lived out that way. I declined as I said I was perfectly capable of riding the bus and I had my dime.

My husband to be insisted he wanted to take me home so he got his friend and his girl to go with us.

We stopped on the way home for hot dogs and by the time I got home we had made a date for Saturday night.

We went roller skating for our first date and during the course of the evening he bragged that he never dated a girl twice in a row. Another man thing!!

When he called on Sunday to ask me out I really gave him a bad time about that remark. Good thing to heckle him about!

That date led to others every day for the next six weeks and on Friday February 28, 1948 we decided to elope to Reno and get married. Needless to say my mother and sister were very very upset about it. Mother told me it wouldn't work and I would be home in two months! I could not understand why they were so upset as after all I just turned 20 and I knew what I was doing!

It was not a very accurate prediction as August 28th we will be celebrating 57 1/2 years of marriage and I have never regretted a moment of it. We did have some thing in our marriage ceremony that I think was unusual. When the Judge pronounced us man and wife with out taking a breath he held out his hand and said that will be ten dollars please. Some thing we have laughed about over the years.