Valentine’s
By
Gerry Niskern
Valentine’s day is coming soon. What are your plans? One young couple I know will celebrate cupid’s evening at a local hotel complete with champagne and a new nightie from Victoria’s Secret. Hotel packages are running around $500 per couple for the day of hearts. It’s anyone’s guess what the new lingerie will cost.
We’ve come a long way, Sweetie…or have we? A box of chocolates from the corner drug store just doesn’t cut it anymore.
When you think about it, does anything compare to the thrill of receiving that big red heart from the valentine box when you were in fifth grade? You remember the enchanted box. You hurried to get through your lessons and turn in your papers so you could add your share of red paper hearts to the structure.
Valentine’s day marked your validation of popularity. If you received a big stack from your classmates it was great, but the most wonderful feeling of all was opening an envelope and finding a declaration of love signed by the boy who was too shy to look your direction.
Valentine’s day and courtship has changed through the years. My mother, Eva, used to tell us about one special Valentine’s day when she was twelve years old.
She was the youngest of six girls. Everyone who has been in that position knows that most of the work helping the mother around the house falls to the last girl. On Saturday, before Valentine’s day, her older sisters were upstairs shampooing their hair and preparing to step out with their suitors that evening. Eva was kept busy answering the front door, while trying to perform her weekend household chores. Each time it was the delivery boy from the local confectioners with a heart shaped box of candy for one of her sisters from their current boyfriend. The twelve-year-olds mouth watered at the thought of all that chocolate candy.
Walter, a Russian fellow, was courting her widowed sister Annie. Early that morning he brought Annie a box of chocolates and stayed to help Grandpa hoe the garden. Eva teased him about loving Annie so much he was willing to hoe on his day off. He laughed and said how did she like being the only girl in the family without a sweetheart?
The last straw occurred late that afternoon when an elegant box arrived for her sister Kate. She was just two years older and had been her playmate. Now Kate had a boyfriend and was abandoning her. Mom started to knead the bread dough for the next day’s baking, tears of frustration in her eyes. She pounding the dough so furiously she almost didn’t hear the knock at the door. “Delivery for Eva,” the boy announced loudly as he placed in her arms the largest golden heart that had come to the house that day.
“Girls, come see what Eva has,” my grandmother called up the stairs. For the first time in her young life my mother was the center of attention in her family as her five sisters speculated whom the sender could possibly be.
“So, Eva,” Walter asked when he came to escort Annie that evening, “What does your dad think about you having a boyfriend?” It was quite a long time before she realized Walter, who later became her brother-in-law, was the anonymous sender.
Maybe it’s time for all of us to spread the love around a little. I’m sure everyone can think of many people in their lives who need an unexpected expression of affection. How about the crossing guard at your child’s school, the woman recently widowed in your neighborhood, the day care worker at the nursery or the waitress at your favorite luncheon spot. The list is endless. You know who they are.