Sydney Allen was on the playground at Rosemont Elementary in second grade when she met Bobby Allen. Sydney grew up on Colorado Boulevard, and Bobby grew up on the corner of Salmon Drive and Tyler Street.
Both graduated from Texas A&M University in 1990. They stayed friends when they moved back to Dallas. The old country-and- western dance club near NorthPark Center was a favorite spot.
It wasn’t until 1994 that Bobby convinced Sydney they should go out.
“My roommate at the time said, ‘You know, you really should consider dating him. He just looks at you in a very different kind of way’,” Sydney says. “And I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve known him all my life. I don’t know if it would ruin a friendship.’”
Their friendship turned into romance seamlessly — she doesn’t quite remember the first official date, just that they started being more than friends in October.
In December, they were having dinner at El Chico on Beckley and Davis. Bobby told her he had talked to his best friend and said he really “couldn’t afford to get married, but he couldn’t afford not to.”
“You know, I think at that moment I was pretty confident that he was the one for me,” Sydney says.
In April, Sydney and Bobby stopped at Rosemont Elementary. Bobby had a little sack lunch with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, orange slices and small cartons of milk, just like their lunches in second grade. They had a picnic right there at the playground.
Bobby gave her a ring and said, “This is where we had met. And you know, this is where I want to be with you for the rest of my life.”
“It was kind of a magical moment,” she says.
Their wedding included 500 guests at a ceremony at First United Methodist Church Downtown.
“It was like a neighborhood reunion. Most of the time, you know, the bride knows certain people, and the groom knows other people,” Sydney says. “But we have so many people in common.”
