How We Met cont.

Stan and I met at 4:00 in the afternoon to visit  over a coke.  Coke dates were pretty short because they were usually scheduled between classes. I think we talked for 2 hours. Stan did indeed have blond hair. It was golden blond, thick and curly. He was also skinny as a rail with an adams apple that bobbed up and down when he talked. He was taking a Total Shakespeare course and liked to talk about Shakespeare. I knew next to nothing about Shakespeare but I listened politely and he liked that.

 Stan was a senior and was due to graduate in a month. So we didn't have a long time to get to know each other, since I would be going home in a month and so would Stan. I think we saw each other every day that month. One Friday, Stan invited me to go home with him that weekend to meet his parents. Stan was taking a computer class and could not leave until the computer had finished running his program. Those were the days of room sized computers and computer cards. We couldn't leave until he was done which was around 9:00 PM. We hung around the computer room until it was finished. I seem to remember it was pretty noisy.

Stan's family lived on a farm and driving to his home took about 2 hours. Somewhere along the way Stan said he needed  a cup of coffee. We stopped at a truckstop and Stan wanted me to have a cup of coffee with him. I had never drank coffee before, but he insisted I needed to stay awake too. That was my first ever, cup of coffee. I didn't like it very much and added a lot of sugar and cream to my cup. I still don't like coffee much but I like cream and sugar a lot.

We arrived at the farm around 11 PM and Stan went in the house to wake up his parents and tell them he had brought a girl home. Mom, as I came to call her got up and fixed us bacon and eggs. I don't remember when she fixed up a place for me to sleep but after we ate she asked me if I needed to go to the bathroom before I went to bed. She took me outdoors to the back yard and said we can go here. We squatted in the yard. I was appalled! This was 1958, I had always used indoor toilet faciities.Stan hadn't told me they didnt have indoor plumbing.

Years later I heard that Stan's dad knew I was the girl he would marry because he had never before brought a girl home.

How We Met

I was a freshman at the University of Kansas and I lived in a girls dormatory called North College. We didn't have cell phones back then in1958, but the dorm had a switchbord and if you had a phone call a buzzer rang in your room and you went down the hall to answer one of two phones in a phone booth.

I got a call one day in April and when I said hello someone identifed himself as Stan Williams. I had never heard of Stan Williams but he said a friend, whom I had dated previously, had recommened me as a 'fun' date. He then asked me to go out with him. I told him,"I don't go out with boys I don't know." Soo, he suggested a 'coke date'. Back in those days at KU, a coke date was simply meeting to share a 'coke' at the Student Union to meet and get aquainted.  There were no strings attached and no obligation to pursue the friendship further. I accepted. He told me what he looked like so I could identify him later, 6 feet tall and blond hair. On the agreed upon date, as I was walking into the Student Union earlier in the day, there was a tall, blond boy walking out that resemblled the description Stan had given of himself. I said, "Are you Stan Williams?" He said yes and I said, "I have a date with you this afternoon". (This is pulling at my heart strings)

 I wasn't overly impressed. He was just a guy and it doesn't hurt to meet new people. Little did I know this was the man I would marry and live with for the next 58 years .

Facebook post from my Granddaughter Shannon

Farmer. Rocket Scientist. Iron man. Husband. Daddy. Grandpa. Hero. 
I am heartbroken that my grandpa is gone, he taught me that hard work will get you far, but that life isn't worth much if you don't share it. He was one of the most generous people I have ever met and the most stubborn. Praising God that he is not suffering anymore but devastated that he is gone.

Memories from my Granddaughter Stephanie

My Grandpa passed away earlier this week. He was a strong man, in every sense of the word. Physically, he was a triathlete, and a tough competitor. He showed me to how to give my all in everything I do (and no matter how hard I tried, I never could beat him in a game of Monopoly). He was stubborn, and showed me how to be strong willed and stand up for what I believe in. He was brilliant, and am proud of all his accomplishments at NASA, and elsewhere. What I adored the most about him was the way he loved. Even after he had dementia, he could still tell me about his first date with my Grandma. He told me how he knew right away she was something special. He kept her out later than he said he would so that she would miss a date she had later that day. She ran away from home in order to marry him. From that day he did whatever he could to make her happy. From watching them, I knew he lived to make her smile. Their love story is better than any I've read about and I'm blessed to have been around to see it. 
Rest easy Grandpa, I love you.

The Beginning

We were the Ironman Team before anyone ever heard of the Ironman Triathlon. Our coach Troy Jacobson gave us that name when Stan and I started doing Ironman triathlons together.

This is our incredible journey that started when we first met at the University of Kansas in 1958.