Romance and Horror a Love Story Kirk and Leila Bottomly -- 37 years

Leila and I have two anniversaries--our wedding date and--our first kiss which happened on April 17, 1970. Until then she was my best friend Fred's sister. I was 15. She was two years and one grade older. These are details you won't get from her. I hung out every week at Fred's house. She'd hang out with us and she was a lot prettier than Fred.

Friday nights I would go over or they'd come over, and we'd watch the weekend horror show on TV together until nearly midnight. On this Friday evening our high school was putting on a production of West Side Story. We went with other dates. I took Marjorie and she went with Mike.

At intermission, Laila and I met up at the concession stand in the lobby and innocently arranged to rendezvous after the show for our usual Friday night routine. She had Mike drop her off at my house. Fred didn't make it that night. So it was just the two of us.

We watched The Blob with Steve McQueen--an extraterrestrial blob of carnivorous protoplasm lands on earth, terrorizes a town and a group of rowdy teenagers. The teens end up trapped in one of those small-town silver airstream diners and the blob completely envelops it like a giant green jelly bean. I think they blasted their way out with fire extinguishers--the secret weapon was cold.

I don't really remember too many of the details. But it got warmer in our family room. When things get scary, you naturally want to grab somebody. I got up enough courage to finally kiss her. And the rest, as they say, is history.

I pretty much decided right there and then to marry her. Where was I going to find someone else who could kiss like that? Five years later on June 21 we tied the knot. And sealed it with a kiss..
In June we will celebrate our 37th anniversary.

Loving Creatively--Bill and Lois Cooper--married 55 years

In 1978 while living in Anchorage Alaska, I started working again when our youngest son, Jerry, was a senior in high school. I had enjoyed being a stay at home mom and wife all those years. When I started working at the Anchorage Daily News, I was learning a new job and it was stressful.

About that time, the Sheraton Hotel was opening downtown. They had a beautiful jade staircase going to the 2nd floor that friends were talking about. Since we often took "drives" to check out the town, Bill suggested we drive by the new Sheraton one Saturday afternoon to take a look. So, we toured the new hotel and climbed the beautiful new jade staircase and checked out the new first floor cafe'.

Bill said, "Hey, let's check and see if they have any rooms for the night." I said, "NO! We haven't any luggage. They will get the wrong idea." "Ahhh, Honey, let's just go see", and he dragged me to the front desk and talked to the clerk with me hanging behind.

"Yes, I have a room for you. Do you have any luggage?"  "Yes," Bill responded as I stood there with my mouth open in surprise. Bill had made reservations for a "special" he had seen advertised to get people interested in the new hotel. "One night with dinner and breakfast in bed the next morning."

What a shock and wonderful surprise! Bill had had the boys run into the bathroom and put everything they thought I might need for an overnight into a paper bag and bring it to the car. He had packed a small suitcase for us and put it in the trunk. Needless to say, it was wonderful and relaxing! What a loving creative husband! This is one example of many lovely times in our 55 years of marriage!

Found Love By Missing the Bus--Curt and Nancy McClusky

While I was living in Europe, I went to England for the first week of Christmas vacation. I returned exhausted and slept through my alarm the next morning. I woke up too late to make it to the bus for the church ski trip to Austria. I drove to the bus stop to find my friends gone. Now what do I do?

The pastor at the base chapel told me the ski group had gone to Worgl. That's all he knew. I had already paid for the trip so I had nothing to lose. I looked up Worgl on the map and got in my little Fiat with no radio and started the long drive. I arrived in Worgl the next morning after a night in a hotel. I asked someone at the hotel desk if they knew where the Tyrolian Tours would be staying. They told me where I might possibly find them. Sure enough. That's where I found them waiting for rides to the slopes. What a relief!

My little car became useful. Since there was not enough transportation for the group, I ended up driving daily to the slopes for skiing. I met HIM there and gave him regular rides. We had fun on the slopes and at dinners as well. We then made the long drive back to Zweibrucken in the Fiat together. I was happy that he would ride back with me. We had a lot in common in our beliefs and views. He was stationed in the Air Force where I was teaching. The rest is history. Now we have been married for 38 happy years.

Curt knew my name well because the tour guides on the bus kept calling out my name to see if I had arrived at the bus before they actually left without me. "Is Nancy Reed here? Nancy Reed? Nancy Reed?"  Without that oversleeping and no Fiat in Worgl, would we have met and fallen in love?