Saturday, January 10, 2009

I'm having Visions

No, I'm not hallucinating. I should've said I'm going to be in VISIONS. A few months ago in an alumni update, there was a call for "lovebird" stories; people who met their love at ISU. Hubby and I fit the bill, so I sent our story in. I didn't think we would get a response (even though I think we have a great story) but last week I go an e-mail asking if we would let them feature our story and do a photo shoot with us. Sure! I've always wanted to be in print.

Here is what I submitted:
I met my husband, John, my freshman year at Iowa State before school even started in 1993. I had decided to join the marching band after seeing how much fun it was for my older sister. Band camp is held before classes start in August and I was put into the same rank (group of 8-10 people) as John. He was a junior in the marching band from South Dakota, playing the same instrument that I did. We spent many hours together that first semester in marching band practice and on game days. By the end of the marching season, we were a couple.

So many of our early memories while dating are closely tied to ISU. On our first official "date" we saw a play at C.Y. Stevens. John was in the basketball pep band and during half-time of the games at Hilton I would always bring him a Clone Cone--a favorite of his still today. On special days like Valentine's Day or my birthday, I would walk to class and see personalized messages the whole way written in sidewalk chalk, courtesy of John. He also loved to put messages in The Daily, which I have saved. We were usually both in the VEISHEA parade and then would walk around campus and check out all the activities together. And like all true Iowa State couples, we would go campaniling a few times every year.

We spent our summers apart--one year I was in Chicago and he was in London with the ChemE lab class through ISU. Another summer I was in Hawaii and he was in Wichita, KS. We always had our time at school together, even though we had very different majors--he was Chemical Engineering and I was Speech Comm/Communication Disorders. In the fall we had marching band together.

The summer before my senior year at ISU I was living and working in Ames and he was working in Wichita. He came up for a visit for the 4th of July holiday. When he came into town late in the evening on the 3rd of July, he wanted to take a walk around campus. It was a beautiful summer night as we walked through central campus, past the library, and around Lake LaVerne. We ended up under the campanile and as the bells rang out at midnight, he proposed. A year later we were taking our wedding photos under the campanile.

After 12 years of marriage, we had the opportunity to move back to the one place we knew and loved so well--Ames. We now have two young daughters and enjoy sharing with them all the unique experiences John and I had at Iowa State. They love the VEISHEA parade and all the on-campus activities, they love seeing Cy at football games and having a Clone Cone at basketball games, and they love to walk around campus. They hear many stories that start off "When Daddy and I were at school . . ."

This past Father's Day we took a picnic lunch onto campus and ate under the campanile. We reminded the girls again why this was such a special place to us. As we were eating, a newly married couple came by to take some pictures under the campanile. We had to share with them that this is where it all started for us, too.

A side note: The Iowa State Marching Band is probably one of the biggest dating services on campus. We know more than a few couples who had their start in marching band together. One of our favorite band couples is John's younger brother Nick Mostek and his wife April Lamos Mostek


Got tears in your eyes yet? This may make you cry:

Photobucket

I know it makes me cry--its been 12 years since I was that skinny.


Hubby has started me a Cat's Meow collection of building on campus. This is the one I got for Christmas this year


No, it's not a parking garage (as my Dad thought when this was given at his house). It is CY Stephens Auditorium, the location of our first official date together in November 1993. I can hear your collective "awwww" from here. ;) I don't think Cat's Meow has yet made a replica of the bus we rode on during the band road trip to Kansas in 1993, although there are a few "flattering" pictures of us as a couple from that trip that made it into the band video that year.
So there you have it, our lovebird story. Our photo shoot is in two weeks--they would like to do it outside somewhere on campus. Can't wait, it may be just a tad bit chilly out! Now I just need to get some highlights and lose about 15 lbs before then.

5 comments:

TJ said...

Yahoo! I can't wait to read it!

Tara

Unknown said...

I forgot that John used to do all those things for you. Didn't he "kidnap" you for either Valentines or your birthday the first year you were dating?

I love my husband, but he would never be able to think of sweet things like that. Oh well. I'll still keep him! :)

Kim said...

That's so cool. DOTR and I were just talking about how weird it must be to marry someone you didn't know in college. It was probably the happiest and most carefree time in our lives and we shared all of it (well, DOTR was two years older, but I met him about 2 weeks into my freshman year). Seems odd that all couples don't have that same frame of reference.

Unlike your kids, though, ours get super bored and do a lot of eyerolling when we do our little trips down memory lane...I guess it would be different if we still lived there? Who knows.

One part of my brother's book is about moving back to Lincoln--how different it is from how it seemed in college now that he has to go to work everyday. Not so magical as he remembered. Sounds like you've managed to keep that "magic".

Great article--congratulations!

Bad Mommy said...

Okay, one, Emma is the freaking mirror image of you. Two, John puts all other husbands to shame. Three, that is the sweetest love story.

Minyo said...

How cool to be featured in Visions! A very romantic story also! The night John proposed, did you walk around Lake LaVerne 3 times first? (That's the superstition, right? That you'll marry the person you walk around the lake 3 times with?)

I lived on Barker (co-ed non-alcohol house -- lawn chair drill team) and there were a lot of love connections there as well. We sometimes referred to it as the 'love boat'.