Valentine's Day -- Past and Present
In going through a box of my mother’s old things recently, I came across this heart-shaped box, which I remember her saying had been given to her filled with candy by a boyfriend. I also came across a diary which made me wonder if that boyfriend was someone other than my father.
One thing I learned growing up was that my father was a kind man who knew nothing about choosing and giving gifts. It was after he gave my mother a fertilizer spreader for Christmas that she appointed me to choose her family gifts. I was 10.
As I looked at the heart-shaped box today I could just picture it filled with delicious chocolate truffles. How very romantic! And after the chocolates were gone, it became a jewelry box for costume jewelry like the grasshopper with a fiddle or the ceramic flower broach.
A few pages into the diary (from 1939), I read “Bill called. I have a date with him!” I just couldn’t bring myself to read any further, not wanting to know what this guy Bill meant to her. I could picture some suave, debonair guy delivering the heart-shaped candy box to my mother on Valentine’s Day.
I can’t remember ever receiving candy and seldom flowers on Valentine’s Day. Today I got a Blue Mountain e-card from my beloved. We went out to brunch at a local restaurant. I treated him to lacy black underwear and will soon bake a chocolate heart-shaped cake. Rather low-key, but that’s the way it’s always been and it’s fine because we know we love each other.
I do wish I knew the full story of the heart-shaped box and its contents, probably none of which came from my father.
posted by Barbara at 5:15 PM
6 Comments:
A fertilizer spreader?! Gifts chosen by the 10-year-old you must have made her so happy! Happier than the chocolates, even, from whomever they came.
And what a lovely gift to you - the box, the jewelry, the diary should you ever choose to read it.
Happy Valentine's Day to you and your beloved.
The variety of ways in which Valentines Day can be celebrated by different people is always pretty interesting to me in spite of the fact that I don't take it very seriously. How can I when I get presents like a new toilet for our rental place? (VD 2007) It was much appreciated at the time however and the next year I received a lovely fancy little cake. We've been pretty low key this year so far, but the night is still young - even if we aren't, hahaha!!!
C`mon, give in to your curiosity! At least she once had a boyfriend who gave her pretty gifts, as everyone should have. After all, she married your father and so saw better qualities in him.
Your mom was once a young girl, too, we sometimes forget that, knowing them as moms only. Happy Rosenmontag!
Get thee to the diary and read on! Angela's right. Your mom must have known this fellow before your dad so you have nothing to feel unhappy about...
Wow! A fertilizer spreader! Too bad that's not a euphemism for something more romantic...I received nothing tangible this year from my SO for Valentine's Day, but we did have a wonderful dinner out.
In your shoes I'd read on in that diary...Love the heart-shaped box!
F.
A fertilizer spreader for Christmas! That's the stuff of legends.
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