Not being much of a holiday fanatic, Valentine's Day barely registers with me. I understand the rest of America doesn't feel that way. Television commercials put a lot of pressure on folks to measure their love by the price of their gift. One commercial even went so far as to pooh-pooh chocolates and flowers as passé. Shameful!
I remember when I was a kid that my dad would bring home heart-shaped boxes of candy for all of us, small ones for the kids and a pretty big one for Mom. Yum! All of that chocolate put us in happy and loving moods. We exchanged Valentine cards at school. Those were the days before we were required by school law to give a card to everybody. I probably didn't get as many Valentines as some, but it was fun to see who did consider me a friend and important to file away for later, those who did not. I remember when Lynn S. got the big store bought card from Jeffery Z. All of us girls were jealous. She just stuck her nose up in the air and accepted it like a Kardashian, like she was due such adoration. I'm glad I no longer check my mailbox for Valentines. Like Charlie Brown, I'd have more luck getting a rock.
When I was in college, Valentine's Day was a big deal. I was an RA so I had the job of receiving the flowers and calling the recipients to come down to the office and make a BFD out of a bunch of carnations. One VD, my friend Smitty was the security guard for our dorm. He was a tall thin guy who was always hungry. I had baked him a cake, which I presented after closing the office. He laid a kiss on me, surprising me off my feet. I think that was my first and last Valentine's Day kiss, but it shed some light on why many people love this holiday.
I do remember one special Valentine card, and I still have it. I was sorta seeing two guys at the same time; one lived in Maryland and one I'd met through friends at home. I really, really liked the guy at home, but I was shy and not quite sure what to do about it. Even after he sent me a Valentine and signed it, "Love, Dan." While there aren't too many times in my life I'd like a do-over, that time is definitely one of them. Dan, wherever you are, I am so sorry!! What a mistake I made.
Sigh.
In '81 or '82, we got out of school early due to an afternoon snow on Valentine's Day. I agreed to meet a few teachers at the bar of the local Chinese Restaurant for a few drinks before following the snow plow home. At the door of the restaurant a young woman and I were cleaning off our shoes and chatting about the horrible weather. Her husband was meeting her there for dinner. She insisted that I looked familiar; she was sure she knew me. I told her she must have me confused with another one of the many short, chubby, brown-haired women who populate the Earth, and then I bounced off to the bar for a Singapore Sling. When nature called, I bounced off to the bathroom and stopped dead in my tracks. Eating dinner with my friend from the doorway was the other true love of my life, G.B. Now I knew why I looked so familiar to her. G. and I both had cameras and we considered ourselves budding professional photographers. We had taken many pictures of each other. I guess G didn't destroy my pictures when he got married. So that's how she knew me though I had never seen her before. Awkward. Painful. And a light bulb moment for the three of us. I do remember a few more Singapore Slings. I don't remember how I got home that night.
That's it. Those are the only Valentine Day memories I've accumulated over sixty years of life. As I said, the holiday barely registers with me. If it's important to you, I hope you have a good one.
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