The Sailor's Kiss

Special blog post today! So, I'm assuming most people know at least a little bit about the picture below, but I can tell you the whole background story! Ready? :)

So...
     This picture was taken by the LIFE photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1945 just after World War II.  The photo depicts an elated sailor planting a spontaneous kiss on an unaware nurse.  Many people wondered if the kiss was staged and who the kissers were, but it is revealed after decades of debate that the kiss was not staged and that the kissers are 89-year-olds George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer Friedman.
     These world famous smoochers have reunited in New York City's Times Square to talk about the photograph that, for so many people, has come to symbolize the end of the war.
Mendonsa actual admits that on that day he had been on a date with another woman, Rita Petry, who in fact turned out to be his future wife, and can be seen peeking out and grinning in the background (over Mendonsa's shoulder).  When they heard news of the Japanese surrender, they had gone to a bar for a "few" drinks, and on their way home, he had seen a nurse in the street and passionately kissed her his thanks (he was very grateful to nurses as he had watched so many save wounded sailors in the war).  Friedman says that she did not see him coming and was very surprised of his vice grip and kiss.  She also says that she recognized herself in the picture when it was first published, but Mendonsa wasn't so sure.  What convinced him was the image of his future wife in the background.  Rita Petry says she was not at all bothered that her date was kissing another woman on that day, there was just too much excitement and joy.  There is, in fact, two copies of the photograph hanging in the Mendonsa home; the picture is symbolic to them of the day that war ended, and the day of their first date.  The famous smoochers have met again several times, but have never reenacted the Sailor's Kiss.

:)