space.template.Molly+Ferguson

My mom, Jackie, and I were sitting comfortably in our office upstairs by the Mac computer. My mom was very comfy in sweats and a sweatshirt, sipping her coffee out of her green mug when I talked. I was still wearing my pajamas, as it was vacation and //only// about two o'clock in the afternoon. I sat closest to the computer, making sure it was working properly, holding my "Day of Listening" packet for suggested questions. My mom had gone through the list earlier to get a brief idea of the types of questions I would be asking. It was very relaxing to just sit and talk on a calm fall day.

Molly Ferguson American Literature-B Ms. Jo December 3, 2010

Molly: Speaking of parents…how did you meet Dad?

Jackie: Ohh, how did we meet! Well, Daddy and I both worked at the same company, Digital, um, right out of college. Um...Jim, Molly's dad, he, um, started there earlier, um; it was sometime in the winter or spring, because he had graduated college in the winter. And his brother had worked at Digital and he got a job there. I joined with a bunch of other kids, um, right after college. So I interviewed when I was in college and I selected this job so, um, I started in June probably, um, after graduating. So there were a whole bunch of us that started in June so there were others, there were maybe about a dozen of us in our group that were all, um, right out of college so it was a good group of—, group of kids to hang out with and, um, be friends with. And um, I think that the first time we met, but I'm not sure that Jim remembers this, is one of my friends that was in my group that was another college kid, um, was in his office and I went over to talk to him about something, and, um, his name was Todd. And, um…Molly's laughing because she knows Todd; still friends with a lot of these same people, which is great. But, um, uhh, I went over to talk to Todd and um, Jim was next store in the cub —, there were cubicles, so they weren't were—um, weren't closed offices so everybody could hear everything else that was going on but he like stuck his head up and butted in about something. (takes breath) Um, there was that, um, we also went to a couple get-togethers, parties, over the summer, um, that we were both at, but, you know, there were other people there as well. Um, at some point, so this would have been October, at some point we had a bet about the World Series. So this is (breath) 1986. And, um, I bet that the Red Sox would win the World Series, and Jim bet that the Mets would win the World Series. So I lost this bet and had to take him out to dinner, um, at a Chinese restaurant. Um, so I'm not sure if this is the same night or I think, so that would have been October, so we go—, got to know each other a bit better then, um, at some point, I think it was closer to Thanksgiving or Christmas, yeah it was probably one of the holidays, because some other friends of mine from college that lived in the same area, William and Shari, they were going—they were traveling for the holidays, that's why I think it was a holiday. Um, William lived in California and Shari lived in, um, they—they were living and working in Boston at this point but where their family's were from, William was from California and Shari was from New York, so they were going somewhere for…something; must have been a holiday. And they had a pet rabbit. So they asked me if I would babysit their rabbit while they were gone. So I had this rabbit, and, um, and I was babysitting the rabbit and, um, Jim came over to, like, I don't know if we had gone out to dinner or something that night, I don't think it was the payback for the bet, but it might have been. Um, and then after dinner he stayed for a while, we, um, got to know each other and, um, then the next day, or soon after that, um, I thought it would be fun to get him a Christmas present. You know, we were just getting to know each other, starting to date and so I went to the mall and I got him a stuffed Bugs Bunny rabbit. And so, um, I think what I did is he, I think I went to his apartment and I brought him the rabbit. I wrapped it up and said 'Here, you know, here's a present for you,' type thing. So then the day after this I got to my office at work and I found in my office the Bugs Bunny rabbit! And so I thought, 'Oh no, he's giving me back the rabbit! He must hate me. I got him a present, I thought, you know, this relationship was more than it was or something. Oh no, I must have made a terrible mistake!' Well what had happened is he had gotten—like almost at the same time, and we probably didn't, we probably just missed each other at the mall—he had also gone out and bought me a Bugs Bunny rabbit! (laughs) So, so then he didn't know what to do, like I showed up at his apartment with the rabbit and he's like, 'Uhhh, I had already gotten her one of those…" (laughs) So he just left it, the one for me, in my office the next day so…I don't know how I finally figured it out, that it was a different rabbit, it wasn't him returning my rabbit gift. But anyway, so that was it, um, and so I babysat the—the pet rabbit over the time and I think that it got out of its cage at one point and I stepped on its head or something....I didn't kill it, I didn't hurt it! But that was part of the, um, part of the time also. That's all I remember about that. So. This is many years ago! This is twenty five years ago, so, um, my memory is not the sharpest. So.

Molly: How did he propose to you?

Jackie: Oh well okay. So, again not quite the normal traditional thing. I had friends, I had a friend, um, who owned a jewelry business. Um, when I was in college I worked at IBM as a co-op student, and I met a bunch of other kids there, and, um, one of the women that worked there, um, she didn't work in a technical thing, she worked like as a support secretarial type job—her boyfriend at the time was doing research. And, um, they ended up getting married and they lived, I think at this time they lived in Arizona. He had gone to graduate school in Arizona after that; they lived in, um, Minneapolis for a while. Anyway, she owned a jewelry store—not a jewelry store, she made jewelry. She, um, bought gems and she set them and did all this stuff with high-end gems. And so she, um, she, we talked to her and she suggested some diamonds. And so I think that we had, she had sent us out a few different diamonds to, um, to look at. So we looked at them and we picked out one. So this was not a surprise. So, um, we picked out a diamond, we sent it back to her; she had it set. Um, and so then we went out to dinner, and, um—I think it was my adoption day, December 3rd again. Um, we went to the Lobster Boat in Merrimack. Now, I don't think we had eaten there before, and Jim didn't realize that it was a restaurant with paper plates. (laughs) And it was good food—I don't know, maybe I picked the restaurant—but it was a restaurant that he wasn't expecting. So, but, during the dinner he did not get down on a knee or anything, so he gave me the ring at that point…during the dinner, at the Lobster Boat.

Molly: So, you picked out the ring before...you ate the dinner? So you had already decided you were getting married?

Jackie: Yeah. We had already picked out the ring and then—well we picked out the diamond—and then we sent it back to Susanna and she had it set and she sent it back to Jim. (takes breath) And...we were also living together at that point. We had bought a condo, so in—so this was—we got married in 1988 in the fall, I think—so I think this was the previous December, so that would have been December of 1987 that we got engaged. But it was sometime earlier in 1987 that we bought a condo together. At this point, as happens many times in the future, it—so this is other advice to children: that if you think that this is the last opportunity that you will ever have to buy real estate, it's not. At this point—and this is so funny thinking about it now because we've gotten through the same cycle since then—prices were going up (takes breath) and 'oh no, if we never—if we don't buy now we'll never have a chance to buy. You know, we'll never afford anything ever again. Blah blah blah.' (takes breath) So, um, at that point we, um, knew we wanted to be together long-term; um, get married at some point. And, um, so we thought 'oh no, we should probably buy a condo because you know we're just paying rent and prices just keep going up!' So, um, we each borrowed a little bit of money from our parents and we bought a condo. Um, and that was 1987. I don't remember when it was, and then, then after that we got the ring and then we got married. So that's the way we did it. And our parents were okay with us deciding to buy a condo together. You know, they weren't totally against it or shocked or anything, so. I think they both liked each other. You know, my parents liked Jim. Jim's mother liked me. So.

Molly: Can you tell me anything about you meeting his parents or your parents meeting Jim?

Jackie: Um...Well, Jim's father had died before I met him. (takes breath) I don't remember when I met his mother for the first time. Jim's brother lived in the Boston area and Jim did. So I don't remember when I first met his mother. Um... (takes breath) Jim met my sister Maria first. Um, and she just told us about this recently that she had a diary. Um, my father had a friend who worked at the Boston Garden, so she could—she got us tickets several times. We got—went to see the Bean Pot hockey a few times. We went to see a Celtics game this one time. And, um, so I was going with Jim to the Celtics and we met my sister Maria for dinner in, um, Quincy Market beforehand. We ate at the Magic Pan, which was a crepe restaurant, which is no longer with us. Um, so we had dinner, and then we were late—I don't know if it was—Maria's, Maria's fault—it probably was. Like dinner was late, something was late, we ended up getting to the Garden late. We were actually supposed to sit right on the floor. We ended up sitting near the skybox. Um, but anyway, so Maria wrote afterwards in her diary something like, 'Oh Jackie brought a new guy, I met him. He was kind of geeky,' or something like that. So that was, um, how Maria met him. Um, I don't remember when that was... So, as I said, when I—when Jim and I first started dating was over some Holiday with the rabbit. Um...and then (pause) shortly after that, (takes breath) it might have been Easter, yeah it might have been Easter. My Aunt Margaret was having Easter dinner at her house and, um, (takes breath) I asked if I could bring, um, Jim along to dinner (my parents were going to be there—would have been the first time they met him, so). She—they went at that point, um, and Jim—we got there first and, um, Jim met my Aunt Margaret and then he met my parents and, um, he liked them all, they liked him, it was good. And then my Aunt Margaret tells this story that after dinner (laughs) Jim went in and took a nap on her bed. (laughs) Which wasn't really appropriate, but it wasn't—it wasn't so terrible that everybody hated Jim after that. So. (laughs) Um, I think that that's that....And we lived happily ever after. So.

Molly: Thank you for your time, with your story.

Jackie: You're...welcome...I'm trying to use up the rest of the time here 'cause I see we're almost at thirty minutes, so. You're welcome, and maybe I'll listen to other people's interviews on wikispaces or something. And I can say hi to Ms. Jo and hi Derryfield...

Molly: Hiiii

Jackie: ...American Lit class. Woohoo. Go Cougars. (takes breath) So. Yay. Um, hope you find this amusing! Bye!

Molly: Thank you. It was nice talking to you...

Jackie: Nice talking to you too, Molly...

Molly: (laughs)