Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/115080
Maybe it���s that spooky love legend of the Warriner seal ��� kiss your love there at midnight under a full moon, and you���re destined to marry. Or it could be the irresistible romance of autumn strolls through the leafy campus. Or those December candlelit pajama breakfasts in the cafeteria. Whatever it is, love has been blooming at Central since, well, at least the 1920s when Howard McDonald and Marietta Cook fell for each other as they studied to be teachers. Along the way, three roommates fell in love with three roommates, and they all got married. Craig Mulder popped the question to Kathi McDonald over a load of Sunday night laundry. And several generations of families just kept falling in love ��� at and with CMU. THE SWEETHEARTS NICK + LISA How love bloomed at Troutman Hall Nick Marrone, ���80, and his roommates were painting a Laurel and Hardy mural on the wall of their Troutman Hall room when Lisa (Westby) Marrone, ���82, and her roommates from 410 popped in to say hi. It was 1976, and Nick was a sophomore. Romance, he says, ���was the last thing I was looking for.��� But as the weeks went on, Nick and Lisa clicked. Nick Marrone, ���80 and Lisa (Westby) Marrone, ���82 ���I really didn���t want to be tied down,��� he says. ���But by our junior year, we fell in love.��� What was it like, that moment of falling in love? Then ��� the fateful Halloween Party of 1977. ���We���d go for walks, especially in the fall,��� Nick recalls. ���It was so neat to be walking around campus then, it was so beautiful.��� ���We got into an argument,��� Nick says. ���It was probably my fault. When that happened, I realized I loved her. I thought, ���What did I do? I screwed this up.��� So I went back to her.��� They married three months after graduation in August. Now, 32 years later, Nick is a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch and Lisa is a customer relations manager for ECA, a company that builds science kits. Two of their kids attended Central. They both had biology classes, so they���d look for leaves and plants to identify. They loved hanging out at the swinging bridge at Deerfield Park. ���When the holidays came, I always thought that was so romantic,��� Nick says, ���going to that Christmas breakfast in your PJs with the candles. Some of my very best memories of my lifetime originate from CMU.��� centralight spring ���13 9