Single Search Brings Couple To The Alter

Valdosta Times, February 14, 1993

A Romance By Computer

There are many ways to meet someone: at church, at a bar, through a blind date set up by friends and even through a computer dating service.

But do computer dating services actually work? Do they always result in a good match? Well, in the case of Fred and Pattee Holt of Valdosta, yes!

The Holts met through a computer dating service out of Tallahassee, FL, started dating in late July of last year and were married Sept. 25. They recently told The Valdosta Daily Times why they chose to go to a service and how they knew they were right fo r each other.

"I thought this would be a good way of meeting people and getting a close match to what you like," said Holt. "The service gives you the probabilities and such for a match. It gives you a starting place." Mrs. Holt, a customer service representative at Valdosta Insurance Services, saw it as a way of expanding her horizons and just wanted to see what would happen. She said the service sends its clients a sheet every month with possible matches, and she was contacted by one person before meeting Holt and one person after.

"I told that person it was too late," she said. "Fred lived in Griffin, and he called me for the first time in late July. He'd call me at midnight because he worked the late shift, and we talked to each other every night for a week before finally meetin g that weekend.

"He came here to see me, and we saw each other every weekend and talked on the phone all week up until our marriage. We've both been married before; we weren't naive youngsters. That's why we married so quickly."

Mrs. Holt said she knew Holt was the man for her because he was honest and open, treated her good, was good with her 10-year old daughter, Jennie, and he liked her cats.

Holt, who said he contacted four or five women before Pattee, said he knew she was the one for him because one weekend when she and Jennie went to Griffin to visit him and he had to work, he gave her some money for her and Jennie to do something, and she didn't spend any of it.

"That told me she was interested in me and not money," he said. "She's also a great cook. I was 145 pounds when we married and now I'm 190.

"I moved here because it was easier. I was a computer operator in Griffin, and I'm working at a local manufacturing firm here. Everything is going great. We're currently in the process of moving out of a apartment into a home."

The Holts said they definitely recommend computer dating services to anyone single and interested in trying it. They said it increases chances of finding a possible mate tremendously, and it beats the bar scene and a whole lot of other things one can get into when searching for someone.