Saturday has rolled around once again. With the world turned upside down, it is a wonderful feeling to be able to bury myself in my blog and research a Fearless Female for Women’s History Month on Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

1)  Lisa Alzo developed a series of Fearless Female writing prompts 10 years ago to celebrate National Women’s History Month.  This year’s listing of prompts is in Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Fearless Females Blogging Prompts.

2)  Today is March 14, so the writing prompt is:  “Newsmakers? Did you have a female ancestor who made the news? Why? Was she famous or notorious? Did she appear in the social column?”  If you cannot write about that prompt, choose another one from the list.

I realized some years ago that I had no idea how my parents met. My dad, George Sabo, was born and grew up in Passaic, Passaic, New Jersey.

Due to my grandfather’s job working for Western Union, my mother, Doris Adams, and family had moved up and down the East Coast multiple times. Two of the moves were to homes in New Jersey, but in Tenafly and Ridgewood, both in Bergen County.

I also knew that my father had become engaged to a young lady (not my mother) at Christmas time 1946 and recently found the announcement in my favorite newspaper, The Herald News. I think Nana had a lot to do with it – perhaps even almost an arranged-type of marriage, as the young lady was a Carpatho-Rusyn Greek Catholic, as was all of my paternal family.

Something happened quickly to end that engagement.

My Aunt Carole, my mom’s sister, passed away last fall. She would have been the only person to perhaps be able to answer the question of how Dad and Mom met. I am glad I asked her when I did or I would never have known the answer.

My mother had been living in California after World War II ended, as she had been stationed there in the WAVES. She decided to apply to college and was accepted at Stanford. However, two factors stopped her from enrolling – Mom said her friend who applied was not accepted and, with the return of servicemen, finding affordable housing in the Bay Area was too expensive.

Therefore, Mom returned to New Jersey and Aunt Carole said she was living in the basement of my grandparents’ home in Ridgewood. Mom then applied to Rutgers University and was accepted there.

My father was younger than my mother and was just finishing high school when the war ended. Nana had big plans for Dad to attend Notre Dame and he was accepted there. Dad, on the other hand, apparently wanted nothing to do with going off to college in Indiana and applied to. . . . .yes, you guessed it. . . . . .Rutgers University.

Aunt Carole said my parents met while taking classes there. Neither finished a degree and my father’s engagement must have come to a quick end as my parents married on 6 June 1947.

Celebrating Women’s History Month is a great topic for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun. 🙂