Here Come the Brides - 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History-Week 6

I had so many “favorite” televisions shows growing up that it’s hard to choose just one. However, there is one TV series I have close personal ties to that also stands out as a favorite. Here Come the Brides aired in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was set in Seattle near where I grew up, making it a hit series with the locals. Teen heartthrob, Bobby Sherman starred.

The premise of the series was that the young logging town of Seattle had a shortage of marriageable young women so volunteers from New England were brought west looking for husbands.

My connection, besides growing up in the Pacific Northwest, was that one of the brides, and a main character, Candy, played by Bridget Hanley, grew up a couple of blocks from where my family lived. In fact, her family home was right next door to my elementary school. Bridget’s grandmother lived in a little house in the woods in the back of their property. The school playground adjoined those woods and occasionally we would go over to the fence when Bridget’s grandmother was out around her house and visit with her.

One summer Bridget came home for a visit and an autograph session was arranged on her front porch. All the neighborhood kids and other fans waited in line to meet Bridget and get her autograph. Unfortunately, my family was out of town on that day and my parents wouldn’t bring me home so I could get Bridget’s autograph! We really weren’t very far away and I just couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t bring me home. So I had to be satisfied with verbal descriptions of Bridget, her hairdo, and her attire from my friends.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts in 2011to encourage you to record memories and insights about your life.


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum