Love blooms, thanks to an ad in the Weekly.

Pam Marino here, with a true local love story of how the Weekly played Cupid for one Pacific Grove couple who have been together for 26 years. It’s featured in this week’s cover package, “Love & Dating.”

Before the internet took over the world, personal ads in newspapers were popular, going all the way back to the 17th century. The Weekly began running personal ads in 1990. 

For a time, they were an important revenue stream for the paper and a steady source of entertainment for readers who chuckled over some of the witty, clever and sometimes titillating ads.

Lisa Love thought only “weirdos” placed personal ads, but in 1999 she cast her doubts aside and placed one herself. She meant for the ad to say “Cute, spunky SWF (single white female)...” but instead it ran as “Cute, funky SWF…” 

“Now it sounds like I don’t shave my armpits,” she remembers thinking. 

Apparently Dan Bellone wasn’t deterred by any potential funkiness. He answered her ad and Love liked what she heard on the phone. They agreed to meet at Caledonia Park. 

Love brought her two children to the date, ages 8 and 4, with strict instructions to stick to each hip. Bellone was already there, standing at 6-foot-5 with blue eyes, wearing cowboy boots and bearing a gift of a bag of plums from his yard. 

“I took one look at him and said, ‘You guys can go play. It’s fine,’” Love remembers telling the kids. “I liked him immediately.”

The love story unfolds from there and it even comes with a dramatic twist. (Don’t worry, it’s a happy ending.) It includes a little history of personal ads, some behind the scenes info on the Weekly’s personals plus how the internet changed the game. You can read it here.

“Love & Dating” also includes my colleague Agata Popęda’s story about online dating in today’s world, as well as a feature by Celia Jiménez on the phenomenon of ghosting. 

Did you meet your special someone thanks to a Weekly personal ad? I’d love to hear the story.