My
dad met my mum at University. Somehow, despite his extreme lack of social grace (he has in the past described her as 'the old ball and chain' when introducing her to work colleagues) they somehow got together and started dating. This was in the early 1970s.

Eventually, after a few years, he decided to propose. At the time my mother was working as a teacher, the Old Man as an accountant. He asked to borrow £100 (this being about 1975/76) for unspecified reasons. My mother, still being naive regarding his miserliness, lent him £100.

The Old Man, money now clasped firmly in his sweaty palm, lurches out to the nearest Jewelers, where he spends £30 on a plain gold engagement ring. The other £70 was, I have been reliably informed by my godfather, blown on marijuana, LSD and alcohol.

A few days later, the Old Man goes down on one knee and presents my mother with the plain gold engagement ring and asks her to marry him. She accepts.

He then refuses to buy a wedding ring, either for her, or for himself. She gets married using the engagement ring that she had unwittingly paid for.

He never paid her back for her engagement/wedding ring and, in fact, now denies the whole story.

He also used to alledgedly run out of restaurants without paying (along with my godfather) - the salient difference being that the Old Man would usually attempt to take his plate with him.
(Zapiola zip-zap-zop, Thu 23 Oct 2008, 20:25, Reply)