A Clairemont Love Story: Proposing Where it All Began

By Joe Martinez

Our story started when we were 10 years old and in the same class at Hawthorne Elementary School in Clairemont but it was in the 9th grade at what was then Einstein Jr. High that Linda Streeter caught my eye.

Joe Martinez pops the question to Linda Streeter

She was on stage in a play and I was part of the stage crew. She had a long blond ponytail and was the cutest sweetest girl. I really wanted to kiss her but I just couldn't muster up the nerve to even talk to her. After we graduated from Madison High School in 1966 we both went our separate ways.

In September last year our 45th reunion was being planned.  Linda happened to drive by and saw me watering my yard. She made a u-turn to stop and ask if I was going. I had other plans so we exchanged e-mail addresses and e-mailed each other until January when we decided to meet for a lunch. That led to us wanting to be together. Being a romantic I knew that asking Linda to marry me had to be extra special. I decided to ask her to marry me on that very same stage where she first caught my eye.


I found out that the stage was going to be torn down so I went to the principal of what is now CPMA and told him my story. He thought it would be great so the plan was on.

I kept it a secret from Linda until  May 13th when I took her to the school, walked her on stage, got down on one knee and proposed to her. The principal arranged to take pictures and when the curtains opened it was the school choir singing "Going to the Chapel".

On August 1st the school called me and said they had something for me. When I went they handed me a picture of Linda and myself proposing framed in wood from the very same stage upon which 50 years ago our story began.