Valentine's Day is fast approaching and as Arlingtonians rush to find the perfect gift for that perfect somebody, two couples in Arlington are reaching new milestones in their lives together. One is celebrating 65 years of marriage, a rare feat for modern romance. The other is experiencing the thrill of newly wedded happiness. Yet just how they were brought together speaks to the nature of love in two very different eras.
"A fellow I was friends with pulled up in his car outside of my house and asked me if I wanted to get a milkshake," said Gloria Chaconas, 83, recalling her first encounter with her husband Gus, 88, in 1939. "I looked in the car and Gus was inside too. He had dated a friend of mine before then and he'd been calling me for about a month."
Gus' persistance paid off. The two fell for one another so quickly after that first meeting in Georgetown that they married only months later, five days after Gloria's 18th birthday. A builder by trade, Gus set to work scouting for a site to build their home. He found it in North Arlington, across the street from Yorktown High School. He constructed the house himself. On Valentine's Day of 1940, they moved-in and have stayed there ever since. Gus said the neighborhood has changed much in the past 65 years, from only a few homes to a booming residential neighborhood.
"It was just a small lot when we bought it and nobody was able to build in the area at first," Gus said.
Gus and Gloria had four children, three daughters and one son. Those children, in turn, had children of their own, who also had children of their own. The Chaconas' now have 14 grand-children and 17 great-grand-children. The couple's 65 anniversary celebration Oct. 30 2004, Gloria said, was a noticable gathering.
"We have such a large family that we don't even need to invite anyone else to have a party and it seems like there's a birthday party for one of us every other week," Gloria said.
The secret to a lasting marriage is rather simple, she added, accept the ups and downs of life together.
"You just take the good and you take the bad," she said.
These days Gloria stays active in a senior's tap dancing class and Gus is enjoying retirement.
If Gus and Gloria's meeting over milkshakes demonstrates how couples found each other 1939, Lee and Rachel Greenberg's story speaks to how it's done in 2005. Even though the two lived in the same Arlington apartment complex last year, the had never seen each other until meeting on Match.com. Rachel, 34, said she was hesitant, at first, about finding romance online but when she met Lee, 30, after responding to his profile, everything fell into place.
"I wasn't even going to do it and then a girlfriend of mine convinced me to subscribe for just one month," she said. "What I loved about his profile is that he had pictures on it of him doing lots of different things. It helped to give you a good idea of who he was."
Lee was hesitant too. He didn't even publish his profile on the web site for several weeks. Several subsquent dates had gone well but he continued the search.
"I didn't meet anybody that I wouldn't want to hang out with, they were all interesting," he said. "She mentioned that she didn't like sports. I'm more of a video gamer player. I'm not that into sports either."
The two corresponded briefly via e-mail and then, one night, Rachel called him. Their first date found them at the Lost Dog Cafe Sept. 30, getting acquainted over a plate of nachos. By Dec. 18, they married and left for a honeymoon in the Carribean. On coming home, they began searching for a new home together, eventually finding a house in Arlington's Claremont neighborhood. By day, Lee is a government computer consultant. Rachel also works as a consultant part-time but she has her own side business importing textiles and other crafts from Argentina. But to help couples like themselves with the task of meeting, finding a home and building a life together, the Greenbergs created their own website, www.bargainfamily.com. The site launched Jan 30 and is still being developed.
"I was getting really frustrated in searching for stuff online because you type one thing into a search engine and the first 200 items all seem to be for the same thing," Lee said.
Valentine's Day this year, Rachel said, will be a mult-faceted celebration.
"His birthday is a few days later so we're having a party," she said. "We're also doing it as kind of a housewarming."