A Cliff May Rancho Romance...Margaret and Don Kennedy

By John Grossi

Margaret remembers first hearing about “Donnie” Kennedy when she was in 6th grade at Cubberley. Her neighbor, who was in 7th grade middle school, brought home pictures of the cute boys from Marshall to show to her. “I didn’t see it back then,” Margaret laughs. Fast forward a few years when her friend group at Millikan and his friend group at Lakewood High School heavily overlapped. After seeing him “out and about” a few times, she definitely “saw it.”

The First Date

In August of 1981, both found themselves at a “Warehouse Party” in Signal Hill where a popular Millikan Band called “Token” was putting on a show. Don and his friends invited Margaret and her friends back to one of their houses for a Jacuzzi after the show. “I was like, yah, I can totally go,” remembers Margaret, “But the absolute only reason I could go is my parents were out of town… I would have never been allowed to be out that late.” They went back to the house and Margaret describes, “It was a typical Cliff May Rancho home scenario… it was kinda weird, like how do you even get through this gate? What are we doing here?” The night ended up being a ton of fun. Don offered to drive Margaret home and they exchanged phone numbers!

Margaret says she never thought she would be the one who would “call the guy first” but in Don’s case, she did! A week later, the high schoolers went on their first official date to the Los Altos Drive-in movie theater (where Lowe’s is now) to see Stripes.

The Rest is History...

The two continued to date through high school and college; were married at St. Cornelius in Long Beach in 1988; and rented their first little apartment in Naples for $475/mo! They eventually bought a home in East Long Beach less than 2 miles away from their childhood homes. They raised four children and just welcomed their first grandchild into the world!

Date Ideas from Margaret and Don

• Support your friends’ band at a live show.

• Watch a movie together.