NPR 10-29:Three-Day Courtship Leads to a Lasting Marriage 虽然

A blind date and a short courtship led to a marriage that has lasted more than half a century

Time now for StoryCorps, this project is recording¹ Americans talking about their lives. Today, a story that begins 57 years ago in Indianapolis. Frank Newby was working at a gas station while attending college. Gayle Burton was going to nursing school. They met on a triple blind date.

I spent all the afternoon of the date sunbathing². I was red as a beet³. My hair was a mess and I really didn’t wanna go. And as we were walking down the stairs I saw the three guys sitting there and I said to my friend “look at the hick with no tie, I'll bet I get stuck with him.” And I did. We went out. And I knew he didn’t have any money. They wanted to stop for a hamburger and a Coke and, and he just frankly⁴ told me “I can’t afford it. ” Somehow or other that seemed honest to me. I said let’s just sit in the car and talk. And talk we did. Talked ourselves right into love and marriage. And then I called him. And we deicided maybe we wanna to see each other again, but friends from Chicago had come in and they took me out to lunch. So I stood him up.

I waited longer for her that day than I have ever waited for anybody in my life. I don’t think I really was mad, I was disgusted and I just wrote this girl off. And so I went back to work, worked Monday night, worked Tuesday night, in Wednesday evening the manager said, ''Frank you've got a telephone call.'' And in her little girl’s voice, She started explaining to me. And the sucker that I was, I accepted the apology. And on Friday, I took her out to the farm to meet my mother and dad. And I told Dad Saturday, ''If you can find us a minister, we are gonna get marry tomorrow.'' And on the honeymoon⁵, we got halfway⁶ to Lake Shafer and I discovered that I only had $20.

So we honeymooned⁷ on $20 and it was fun.

I found a motel for $3 a night. We discovered a beer garden where you get a hamburger and a bottle of beer for, I think 75 cents. So we lived 3 days and 3 nights.

On hamburger, beer and love. And I’ve never once regretted. A 3-day courtship.

Gayle and Frank Newby at StoryCorps in Las Cruces, New Mexico. They have been married 57 years. Their conversation and all StoryCorps interviews are archived at the Library of Congress. Subscribe⁸ to the project’s podcast at npr.org.

Support for StoryCorps comes form AT&T, with additional funding from the Corperation for Public Broadcasting.

1 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

2 sunbathing   

n.日光浴

参考例句：

• tourists sunbathing on the beach 在海滩上沐浴着阳光的游客
• We've been sunbathing on the beach. 我们一直在海滩上晒日光浴。

3 beet   

n.甜菜；甜菜根

参考例句：

• He farmed his pickers to work in the beet fields. 他出租他的摘棉工去甜菜地里干活。
• The sugar beet is an entirely different kind of plant.糖用甜菜是一种完全不同的作物。

4 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

5 honeymoon   

n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月

参考例句：

• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。
• The happy pair are leaving for their honeymoon.这幸福的一对就要去度蜜月了。

6 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

7 honeymooned   

度蜜月（honeymoon的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• They honeymooned in Venice. 他们在威尼斯度了蜜月。
• They honeymooned in Paris. 他们在巴黎度蜜月。

8 subscribe   

vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助

参考例句：

• I heartily subscribe to that sentiment.我十分赞同那个观点。
• The magazine is trying to get more readers to subscribe.该杂志正大力发展新订户。