“The evening that I met her, she had 'Babs' written on her sweater.”

Walter Sonneborn and Babette, his wife of 67 years, remember the summer they first met.

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Recorded in Saranac Lake, New York

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Walter Sonneborn (WS): The evening that I met her, she had Babbs written on her sweater, which is nice for me because I can't remember names. Every evening we watched the sun set and when I said look at the shape of that sun, my wife said it's so nice and round, and the sun was split in half by a cloud. So after that I insisted on her wearing her glasses

Babette Sonneborn (BS): We were certainly very fond of each other and we were together all the time. And it was such a perfectly wonderful summer.

WS: Let me tell you some of the juicier things. Babbs and I would hold hands and Babbs' friend always said "has he kissed you yet.?", and Babbs' brother would say "Walter Walter, lead me to the alter." Babbs was very embarrassed.

BS: You know it was so different in those days.

WS: Every night we'd walk through the village and have an ice cream sundae and one day I stopped and held her hand, I said "would you marry me?".

BS: We thought we were secretly engaged, but all the guests in the hotel said, "we wish you lots of luck."

WS: Well we've been married 67 years and the main happiness we have is our love for each other.