PEOPLE : Baby, I Want to Marry You

When Bob and Sandi Tovias auditioned for “You Bet Your Life,” their gimmick was this: They met at a birthday party.

“She was 6 months old,” Bob says, “and I was 2 1/2.” He adds, “I don’t remember it. She doesn’t either, of course.”

Tovias explains, “My family and her family grew up in . . . Santa Paula. Our parents were friends in high school. Her parents got married. My parents got married. We were born.”

Bob and Sandi (pictured below) didn’t really meet until she was a freshman at Santa Paula High and he a junior. They started dating but, Sandi says, “we broke up because I thought he was too nice. He didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke, he didn’t cuss.” In time, she realized she’d dumped a prize.

To the delight of all, they were married in January, 1971. Bob says, “My mother-in-law said it was a marriage made in heaven.”

Bob, 42, and Sandi, 40, live in Ventura and are the parents of two. Bob works for the city of Oxnard, Sandi at the Familia Diaz restaurant, a Santa Paula landmark.

They’re grateful their parents never thought to introduce them. “It wouldn’t have worked out,” Sandi says.