The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1927-09-10
Childhood Love
Often Leads to
Happy Marriage
By Beatrice Fairfax
An Authority on the Problems Of
Love and Marriage

friendships! Many 3 succesStut
marriage traces the beginning Of
its romance to school companion
ship.
Recently I was chatting with a
young woman whose marriage has
proved singularly happy.
"Buel and have been pals since
the day We started in the first
grade together" she said in reply
to a question Of mine. "Buel sat
back of me in the village school
room. He was quick at arith.
metic, so he obligingly added my
sums for me on my slate, which 1
passed back to him.
IT could count on Bue1 to take
me to school, parties and football
games until my family moved
away from town to the Pacific
coast.
by q coincidence. Buel settled.
In the same Western town a few
years later.
I'VE have been married Is
years. Ours cannot be called q.
case Of love at first sight. We
can't remember when we first saw
each other-probably as babies in
our perambulators.
Such a marriage as this, where
q girl and boy have similar back.
grounds, grow up in an atmos-
phere of wholesome, schoolday
conradeship and friendship, marry
reasonably early and continue to
grow and progress together as
husband and wife, can hardly fail.
The difficult problems of adjust
ment are simplified for such a
couple and there is mutual under
standing of each other, without
Illusions before marriage.
In the case of school friend
ships YOU are likely to have every
chance to 'size up" your friend
under almost all kinds of condi-
tions, trying and otherwise - at
Nark, at play, as a good sport"
That is, doubtless, the reason so
many school romances, beginning
as friendships in the teens, lead
TO successful marriage in the early
twenties.
The main thing, IL a school friend.
ship is to prosper and last, Is to,
keep it on a high level Of jolly
wholesome comradeship and 80
avoid slushy, cheap brushes" aad
''necking" contests.
College is, perhaps, the phase OF
school.life which leads most nat
urally to the open door OF ro-
nance. One undeniahle advan-
take of a college course is that 1t
brings together, within the radius
of mountaineering, during the
years that precede the natural
mating season of life, young
women and young men Of similar
background and ambition. con-
genial tastes and viewpoints.
There is, for instance, the case
II Bill and Peggy.
"Of course, I'm crazy about
Bill" Peggy admits cheerfully.
Mother and Dad want me to
leave Kingston and attend Brett
Hall next year. They hope that
will break up Bill and me.
But I want to finish and grad
ute right here with Bill. and
expect to win out because King
ston is near by so I can get home
week-ends. They like THAR
Bill is uniting at Kingston Uni.
Versity an academic course with
a complete and practical course
in hotel management.
Bill and Peggy are waiting
philosophically until Bill gradu-
ates next year and takes his first
paying job"-a fposition guaran-
teed to him as a graduate OF the
hotel-management course-to be-
come engaged.
''Bill is all right" protests
Peggy's mother. We've no OBJ
lection to him. But those chill
dren are too young to settle
down."
Peggy's dad is secretly con.
WINGED that neither Bill nor any
other man is good enough for his
remarkable daughter.
During college years 1t is in.
evitable that many attachments
should be formed. Most Of them
are ephemeral, but always a resi-
due-a percentage-that persists
is Of serious Importance and must
be reckoned with, Parental OBJ
lection is the usual concomitant
of such affairs. But Glove laughs
at locksmiths" and usually finds
q way.
The modern viewpoint is that
to lead his own life successfully
keeps the average person fairly
busy. Undertaking to lead an
others life means heading toward
? disaster. Parents may advise,
may help, however. And when
there is sympathetic, affectionate
effort on the part of daughter
and mother and dad, to under
stand and please each other, usu-
ally compromise can be effected
solving problems of school.day
romance.
Your school romance will prob
ably prove as fleeing as a May
day. But if you bring to it your
finest cOnn"adeshin. r"nd-hm"1nro1
charm and respect for yourself,
your trleAuS e.nu yue. I,.,. =. ~
. cannot leave bitter memories and
1t may exert a lasting, growing
influence on your life.
Keep UP the old school friend.
ships in after years if you pos
sibly can. Let them glow in your
heart and keep you young,
You will. indeed, be fortunate.
and the chances Of married hap
piness will all be in your favor,
IT one Of the loyal friendships of
your school days shall deepen and
broaden into a great, considerata
affection, with mutual faith and
understanding, leading to be.
trothal and marriage.