Americans Talk About Love

Gerd, 66, and Dina, 79

Edited by John Bowe — Mon, 04 May 2009 03:25:00 PDT

Dina: 1973, I was married 25 years. I find out my husband is cheating on me. I didn't know Gerd before. One day, he comes in my house and says, "What happened with your husband? He has an affair with my wife!"

Aubrey Reuben, 76

Edited by John Bowe — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:23:00 PDT

In 1945, when I was 13, in England, my father died. And at 13, you become a man in the Jewish religion. So I took my father's seat in church, and I prayed day and night, and said the mourner's kaddish for my father. I felt that God was on my shoulder talking to me, and I swore that I would be ethical, never tell a lie, and that I would remain a virgin. I was going to be pure and when I married my wife, I would be faithful to her forever, because I believed in all those values.

Dory, 66

John Bowe — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 03:35:00 PDT

It worked for a really long time. We laughed a lot. He was a really funny guy. He still is. And I admired his -- he was a very hard worker. Our first years of marriage, it felt like we were real compatible, and we had fun together. We had a lot of friends, went to lots of parties. We didn't have children until after we had been married for four or five years, and so we traveled and did fun things together.

Craig Johnson, 42

Edited by John Bowe — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 04:24:00 PDT

Sam and I met when I was 18 and she was 14. My mom used to baby-sit her stepdad. My dad went to speak at Sam's church in Visalia, which is in central California. We lived in the Los Angeles area. And I came down, I sang at her church, and then the pastor, who was my dad's best friend, introduced Sam and I. At the time I thought she was too young, but she was really a sweet person. Her dad was a pilot and his airplane crashed off of Catalina Island when Sam was 10. He died, and she basically had to [help] raise her brothers and sisters.

Rebecca, 47

John Bowe — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:57:00 PST

I was, I suppose -- I don't remember -- 36, 37 maybe. About 10 years ago. I was working in a little English restaurant. I worked 18 shifts per week, so I spent most of my time there. And it was mostly South American guys in the kitchen, American customers, businessmen, mainly, and English waitresses like me.

Shawn, 31

John Bowe — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:40:00 PST

I'm Shawn Whitworth. I'm 31. I was born in Orlando, Fla. My name was S-H-O-N-E to start out with, because my family was so country, that's what they put on my birth certificate. Let's see. My dad was in the military when I was born and my mother didn't bother to tell him that she was pregnant so he didn't know until after I was born. I saw him a couple of times between the ages of 3 and 5. But we moved to L.A., and I never saw him again.

Louise, 52

Edited by John Bowe — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:45:00 PST

In 1972 the Catholic high school I was going to merged with the Catholic boys' school because of money. The boys came over. And so this guy, Brian, walks into homeroom, and when I saw him come in, it was like love at first sight. I don't know how I knew, I just knew. He was tall, he was thin, he had long, light brown hair. He was looking kind of lost. He would always do things like close my locker when I was trying to get stuff out of it. Eventually we started going out, and I fell head over heels in love. But I was all of 15.

Paul Pesce, 83

John Bowe — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:30:00 PST

I was born in Brooklyn. My mother died when I was about 9 years old. My father tried to take care of us. What he did was he moved us in with a family. My brother and I. And he went to work and he paid them for room and board to take care of us. But then he would come home and say, "Did you drink your milk?" and I would say, "What milk?" He'd say, "I gave money to the people to give you milk." And besides the money business, other things happened. But we won't talk about those.