Quite a few years ago (looking back from 2026), before meeting people online became "a thing," when everyone had an AOL account, there was weekly "Town Square — Latvian chat" on AOL, "Lat chat" for short.
Latvian communities of the 1950's and 1960's, born of post-WW2 exile, were extended families of mutual support and shared cultural experience. That perspective tainted — in a positive manner — any encounter of a Latvian meeting another Latvian. Lat chat grew out of that shared cultural perspective, gathering Latvians from established Latvian centers such as New York and Boston and also from the hinterlands where a Latvian family might have no local community, in an informal chat about current events, food, and of course families.
That was how and where Silvija and Peters first became acquainted.
Add in some group meetings and pīrāgi and... well... here we are.
Read on for our long-distance date... in Latvia.
latviski

