A Match Made in Preschool
From Alef Bet to wedding bliss, newlyweds remember early impressions and later a budding pre-teen flirtation that paved the way for perpetual union.
You often hear about high school sweethearts who tie the knot. But preschoolers?
Anna Streetman and Harrison Levy are one such newlywed couple who met as 4-year-olds in teacher Rita Breier’s Cool Cats class at Congregation Etz Chaim.
I interviewed Streetman and Levy before and after their wedding, which took place Aug. 23 at VG Bistro in Roswell. Here’s the story of their union.
Streetman, the AJT’s new online content coordinator, recalls her initial impressions of the mechanical expert who would become her mate. “Photos suggest we were really friendly with each other,” Streetman said. There’s a photo of him in preschool with his arm around her.
But they didn’t connect again until middle school, playing a few rounds of hard-to-get.
“Harrison doesn’t remember. We were in middle school sometime between 11 and 13. Right around then he got interested in me, I think. Harrison was flirting with me and trying to get me to sit next to him. He put on the charm and I played hard to get.
“Six years ago, my mom ran into Harrison in the grocery store. She said, ‘I’m Toby Streetman, do you remember me?’” She was also an Etz Chaim preschool teacher and the two set of parents had been friends.
“I remember Anna,” he replied.
Next step was Anna’s. She looked him up on Facebook and added him to her online friends. “I was too scared to talk to him, and he was too scared to talk to me. … I finally asked him to dinner on Facebook Messenger.”
As it turned out it was a terrible first date, they both admitted. “I messed up,” Harrison said. Streetman fills in the details. “Harrison was very nervous. He talked about cars. He’s a mechanic. Every time I talked about something else, he was persistent … He knew he made a fool of himself. … I like that he didn’t give up, and here we are.”
Harrison proposed at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom in front of the Tree of Life (Etz Chaim) Oct. 28, 2018. “I love Disney and am a huge Disney person,” Streetman said.
The child-like belief in dreams coming true combined with a determination and long-haul approach paid off for the pair when it came to planning their wedding, which ended up falling during COVID. The initial plans called for the couple to be married in October 2019, but they decided to push it to the summer at Etz Chaim, where they met, never anticipating a worldwide health crisis would hit. The plans were to include 40 people, but the pandemic forced them to cut that number to 10.
Then there were the meals to consider: dinner, brunch, restaurant, catered, home cooked?
“We eventually decided on VG Bistro because it had everything we needed in one place,” Streetman said.
Of the preparations, Levy said, “I think it added a little stress. Initially we scrambled to figure out something,” to which his new other half finishes, “and a couple of minor changes. We always wanted a small wedding, and we knew that. We did not cut down a huge amount.”
Streetman said the experience was “definitely a little scary and challenging, all the uncertainly. I think it brought us closer as a couple. It reminded me of what it meant to be together, to get through this and support each other even if our plans change. I’m glad to have him to go through it.”
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