How Parents Met In Real Life Dating Before Online Apps

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Once upon a time, before dating apps existed, people actually did meet other people in real life. It may seem like a fairy tale from the distant past, now that your next date is just a right swipe away, but meeting a new partner randomly at a bar or house party (or even because you got on the wrong bus) was actually common just one generation ago. And as great as dating apps can be, it's likely that it's not how your parents met.

Just take a look at a recent thread posted to Twitter in which people are telling the stories about their parents. Writer Alex Trimboli posed the question to her followers Tuesday, after realizing that a lot of people didn't even know the story.

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And the responses she's getting are too adorable for this world. Like the person whose dad met their mom just because he accidentally got on the wrong bus one day:

My dad got on the wrong bus and saw my mom, proceeded to keep taking the wrong bus for months to work up the courage to talk to her.
— Jessica Ellis (@baddestmamajama) October 17, 2017

And the person whose mom met their dad thanks to an unwanted party at her apartment:

And then invited a bunch of other people over to my mom’s apartment. She was like I WAS NOT HAVING A PARTY YOU GUYS FOR REAL.
— Liz (@psyckology) October 17, 2017

And one of the girls was like “HI MAN WE DON’T KNOW. YOU HAVE BEER! COME HANG OUT AT OUR PARTY!”

MOM: FOR REAL GUYS I’M NOT HAVING A PARTY
— Liz (@psyckology) October 17, 2017

And anyway that’s how my parents met. They’ve been married since for like 30 years. Also their initials are TAP and KEG. No lie.
— Liz (@psyckology) October 17, 2017

And the person whose mom went to a school dance with one guy and ended up leaving with their dad:

My dad took her to Friendly's for ice cream, dropped her home. "I stood there looking up at her on the step and that was IT. I was DONE."
— Caitlin Hannah (@TheCopyCait) October 17, 2017

I mean, can you blame him: pic.twitter.com/aHW5ieUFN8
— Caitlin Hannah (@TheCopyCait) October 17, 2017

And the person whose grandparents grew up in the same small town in Italy, but didn't meet the grandmother called a plumber (the grandfather) while living in Massachusetts:

One day grandma's pipes were jacked up so she called the plumber. He showed up, saw her, went straight home, changed. Fixed pipes in a suit.
— sandra gay o'connor (@marya_pasciuto) October 18, 2017

Some years later he ended up stationed in Italy during WWII, went to Gaeta and helped sneak a bunch of grandma's family out to safety
— sandra gay o'connor (@marya_pasciuto) October 18, 2017

Not all of the stories are quite this epic, of course. Some people met because they were high school or college sweethearts:

High school sweethearts. They had just celebrated their 50th anniversary when my mom died. Here they are senior year of high school ❤️ pic.twitter.com/YrjXc1hdNW
— Jeffrey (@sosumi2) October 18, 2017

They met again after college and he was so stunned by my babe mom that he immediately, uh, went home and dumped his girlfriend of 2 years
— hel ? (@elanpin) October 17, 2017

Mom undergrad at Davis, Dad grad student. Both marine biology. She was on the beach, he emerged from ocean in wetsuit, flippers, snorkel.
— Scott "Iron" Madin (@ScottMadin) October 17, 2017

Well, in addition to the car he did have pot?
— Deb (@debjbass) October 17, 2017

And some couples were formed from good old-fashioned set-ups:

That during the convo mum said "god! You're the last man on earth I'd marry" dad said "I could take u home to my mum & she'd stop worrying"
— Sophie Roberts (@sophielroberts) October 17, 2017

Friends set them up. They had a first date. Then my dad said "wanna come to my place to listen to some records?"

She said yes. Never left.
— Didi Chanoch (@didic) October 17, 2017

They met on blind date and while out on said date ran into a pal who snapped his photo of them. pic.twitter.com/iKPryaTJ6f
— Scaro Sheri-demon (@splityarn) October 17, 2017

Again, there's nothing wrong with meeting people on dating apps. Lots of us are doing it now that they exist, and recent research shows that they're actually changing what relationships look like by introducing people to other people they would never have met otherwise.

Still, it's nice to know that it is possible to meet someone without the help of an app, especially if you're the kind of person who really hates all that swiping.

Read these stories next:

How To Meet People IRL If You Hate Dating Apps

I'm No Longer Dating People Who Are "Relationship Material"

The Reason I Won't Mention My Size On Dating Apps