This coming June would have been my parents 78th wedding anniversary. In June 1946 they married a year after my father’s discharge from the Army. My father a WWII veteran was drafted before the US entered the war and spent three and a half years in Australia. He was discharged just weeks after VE day and over a month before VJ day, when WWII finally came to a close and he could settle back into civilian life.
Both of my parents had been engaged to other people before they met each other in the summer of 1945. My father was visiting another woman who worked at an insurance company and spied my mother who was also was working there. My father was immediately smitten and returned a short time later and asked this petite beauty, also of Italian parents, to go out. My dad’s uncle had told him not to rush into anything and not to appear too anxious and almost ruined the whole thing. But finally, there were a couple of dates, a bingo game, and a meeting of the parents where everyone approved of the new relationship.
But there was one catch, my mother was the oldest of 3 sisters and she had to marry first, so that summer of 1946 there were two sisters’ weddings. My mother first and then her younger sister Rose was married just weeks later. They had picked out their dresses together and shared both as brides and maids of honor.
Interestingly, it turns out my parents’ paths did cross at least once before the war and before they had actually met. While sweeping out my mother’s attic I found a ticket stub to a High School dance in 1937 featuring the music of The Trojans. My mother had attended the dance and my father was the alto and clarinet player in the Trojans. My mother said she didn’t remember seeing my father up on the bandstand as she was busy talking to friends, but she remembered that the music was good.
They met 8 years later.
Here are two photographs of my parents’ honeymoon in NYC, June 1946. Both were taken at clubs that featured jazz.
The Zanzibar Café where they saw Nat King Cole.
The Aquarium Restaurant where they saw Les Brown & His Orchestra.