On the Cary Junior High School playground in 1972, Mark Meyer was hanging out with his friends when he noticed someone eavesdropping on them. Peri Barker from the grade below overheard a joke they were telling and couldn’t help but laugh.
“So I kept telling my story, and she kept laughing, and I’m like, ‘This is pretty cool, she’s liking my stuff. She thinks I’m funny,’” Mark says.
From the moment they noticed each other, Mark and Peri were inseparable, despite once being called into the principal’s office for holding hands on the playground. Mark’s dad drove them to the movies for their first date. He would ride his bike over to Peri’s house to see her…