Text 1
Contributor: Lindsey Hughes
Informant: Joseph Turner
Title: “The Fortune Cookie”
Date: First Semester, 2005
“I planned a birthday dinner for my girlfriend at a Chinese Restaurant. I invited her parents to come along as well. Earlier that day, before we met for dinner, I went to the restaurant, and had the owner put a fortune in a fortune cookie which said “Will you marry me?.” I had them make sure that certain cookie went to my girlfriend. We all went to the restaurant later that evening, and had dinner. At the end of the meal, they brought us our fortune cookie, which happens at every Chinese restaurant. My girlfriend opened her fortune cookie, read what it said, and while she read “Will you marry me,” I got down on one knee next to her, and handed her a ring. She was very surprised, because she just thought we were there for her birthday. She cried, then smiled, and said “Yes.”
Context
The location of the proposal, the Chinese restaurant, enabled the informant to propose the way he did. The fact that the parents were invited shows the respect the informant has for his girlfriend’s family. The invite of the parents could have spoiled the surprise, but the timing of the girlfriend’s birthday, made the parents invite seem normal, and enabled the proposal to be a surprise. The type of proposal shows the creativeness of the person.