The "Son-In-Law Test" Story

Our daughter at the age of 4.

It was an ordinary day.  March 7, 1996 and our daughter, Brynn, was expecting her boyfriend of a couple months for supper to meet her mom and dad.  Big day in any daughter's life let along an evening where her mom and dad had

prepared a special test he had to take before being offered supper.  Test was known as the "WOODS' FAMILY BOYFRIEND TEST".  Brynn had meet this young man in a children's literature class at Millersville University where they were both students in the Elementary Education Curriculum.  She had a few dates with him and finally asked him to supper to meet her parents.  Hey, I'm sure a free home-cooked meal looked great to him so he told her he was all in for the meal.  Well, he didn't realize that before he would eat, he had to take a questionnaire and his answers would decide if he would eat that night.   The top of the questionnaire asked him his name, address, phone #, SS# and birthdate.  

Story in the local paper telling how Dave proposed to Brynn.
It is in my archives from Thursday, March 25, 2010.

What followed were 17 questions that would give us a look at his smarts and common sense as well as his sense of humor which is one of the most important traits in our family.   Well, didn't take long before we were sitting at the table having a good meal.  Recently, Brynn called and told her mom that she had just found the "Boyfriend Test" and had sent a copy to us.  So much fun to read the questions that he answered that March day.  A few of the questions were more important than others to me such as:  Question #2 which read - "Do you watch Leave it to Beaver?" which was one of my favorite childhood shows, #7 - "Have you ever eaten chicken pot pie?" which my wife is a pro at making, #13 - "What is one thing you must eat at every meal?" which was very important to me, and #17 - "Who is the greatest girl you ever met?"  

Brynn and Dave's Wedding day.

Well, he aced the test and we gave our approval and a little over a year later, on May 9th, they were married in Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania.  To this day I believe it was that test that gave us a look at what this young man had to offer our daughter.  Carol and I now have two fantastic granddaughters, Courtney and Camille.  Courtney will be entering college in the near future while Camille will be a high school junior next September.  I'm sure Dave knew the test was just an opening for him to meet his girlfriend's parents who happened to be his future in-laws.  It was one meal I know none of those involved in it will ever forget.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - The "Official" WOODS' FAMILY BOYFRIEND TEST follows.... (click to enlarge)