Alice Munro published “How I Met My Husband” in her book Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You (1974). Told from the first-person point of view, the story layers the voice of the fifteen-year-old Edie, working as a “hired girl” in the house of the comparatively wealthy Peebles family, with that of the adult Edie, now happily married and wiser than she was as a teenager. Edie’s voice is colloquial and friendly, keenly aware of its audience. In this way, the story celebrates the art of storytelling, suggesting that by using memories to tell stories people arrive at a greater understanding of who they are. Storytelling also enables women who live on the margins of society—such as Edie, who has little education, money, or status—to speak when they might otherwise be silenced. And Edie is quite a storyteller; even as a teenager, she has a quick wit and healthy sense of identity even though she also seeks greater fulfillment in life. She thinks it might come in the form of a pilot who lands his airplane in the fairgrounds across from her employers’ house, for whose letter she patiently waits. However, she finally understands that waiting will not give her happiness. She learns that there are women all over “waiting by mailboxes for one letter or another” and determines that she “was never made to go on like that.” By telling her own story and seizing opportunities to make life good for herself, Edie refuses to deceive herself that life is other than what it is, which is something joyful if lived with vitality and honesty.

When an airplane flies overhead at noon, Edie and Dr. and Mrs. Peebles run outside, afraid it will crash near their house. But, no, the pilot was landing the plane in the fairgrounds across the street. Loretta Bird, the noisy and nosy neighbor, stops by to gossip about the event, for in this area, about five miles outside the city, not much happens, and a plane landing across the street is worth talking about. The next day, Mrs. Peebles takes her children into town to get haircuts, and while she is gone, Edie, after cleaning the kitchen so that it is sparkling clean, goes into Mrs. Peebles’s bedroom just to look around and snoops into her closet as well. She sees a beautiful satin gown hanging in the back that she cannot resist trying on. It fits beautifully, so Edie puts on a bit of makeup too. While she is in the kitchen getting a glass of ginger ale, a man appears at the door and introduces himself as Chris Watters, the pilot of the plane that landed the day before. He asks if he could use the pump for water. He at first mistakes her for the lady of the house, but he remains friendly after she tells him she is merely “the hired girl.” Regardless, he tells her she looks beautiful. Although alarmed that someone caught her in Mrs. Peebles’s dress, Edie is nevertheless flattered by his compliments.

Edie tells Dr. and Mrs. Peebles about Chris Watters later that day, but she realizes that if he were to visit and mention the satin dress, she would be embarrassed and perhaps in trouble with her employers. After the children are in bed, she runs over to ask Chris to please say nothing about the dress. He is quick to agree and puts her at ease; even more, he gives her a cigarette, lights it, and talks with her. Edie is again flattered because, after all, this is an older man...