Spin Cycle: Valentine's Day

Senior year of high school my BFF and I planned a romantic Valentine's dinner for our boyfriends.

We held the event at BFF's house because her mother would be out with her own boyfriend. And frankly, my parents were hovering pains-in-the-neck who hated when I used the kitchen, and would rather die than do anything that might encourage my (in their opinion) out-of-control relationship with my boyfriend.

BFF and I didn't want to waste lots of time cooking, if you know what I mean. No, seriously, we were coming straight from play rehearsal and elected to use any spare moments in preparing ourselves rather than the food. We were, after all, 17.

The main course was pizza. We cut the dough in the shape of a huge heart. Adorable, I know. Homemade apple pie for dessert. A lot harder to make that crust heart-shaped, but we tried. 

When the pie was ready we displayed it on a heart-shaped platter with a very carefully chosen assortment of candy hearts arranged around it, their tiny, endearing words intended  as one long, suggestive love note. Which of course we read out loud to them in tandem when the time came to serve dessert.

We were nothing if not age-appropriately sentimental.

The lights were low, candles lit, and a fire in the fireplace. There was no alcohol, since we had no idea when BFF's mother was due home.

I know my boyfriend and I exchanged gifts, and I'd love to say I remember what they were, but I don't. What I do remember is the knot in my stomach when he asked why wasn't I wearing his class ring, a ring I'd had in my possession for a year and half, and one that, only days before, I'd discovered I'd misplaced.

I managed to bluff my way out that night, and avoid confessing that I had no idea where the damned ring was.

I believe I may have been saved by BFF's mom returning home and commencing immediately to blow out candles and turn on lights, glaring at the four of us like we were frolicking naked in a hot tub rather than reading sappy love notes written with candy hearts.

The odd addendum to all this is that BFF had no memory of this night whatsoever when I tried to remind her of it recently. How Twilight Zone is that?

Now she's got to come up with some equally spectacular thing we once did that I have no memory of.

Hear that, BFF? The clock is ticking...

 

For more Valentine's Spins, go visit Sprite's Keeper. And give her my love.

 

 

Comments

[SuziCate]

It's weird how random and select memoryis. I've had the same thing happen not only with friends but with my husband...things only one of us remembers! Thanks for taking me down memory lane when "innocense tried so hard not to be innocent."

[Michele]

Well, you've thrown down the gauntlet let's see if BFF picks it up. Did you find the ring?

[Sprite's Keeper]

Aw, love right back at ya!
I never did anything sappy for Valentine's Day until John came along. I never felt like the guy I was dating during February deserved anything. And whenever they did something for me, I felt awkward. Now, it feels natural. :-) So, considering I've been really celebrating V-Day for the last ten years, I'd be in serious trouble if I forgot one!
You're linked!

[PLRH]

Oh, teenage love! How tender, sweet, and unexperienced it is.

Eldest Son broke up with his girlfriend this weekend and I was more distraught than he was. I did give him credit for not doing it next weekend on Valentine's Day.

[Kristen @ Motherese]

What a lovely collection of memories, right down to the details of the heart-shaped apple pie crust and conversation hearts.

I'd like to hope that my own children's teenage Valentine's dates will be as G-rated as this one! :)

[Casey]

Ahh, to be young and in love again. Actually, I'll skip the young love part, there was too much drama. I prefer old and in love. And comfortable.

[TheKitchenWitch]

Isn't that funny how a memory can be so firmly etched in our mind and completely forgotten by someone else? I think it's also funny how sometimes the way *I* remember some event is completely opposite of the way my husband remembers it.

Can't wait to hear what BFF has to say!

[Mama Badger]

You'll have to let BFF guest blog her memory that you don't have!

I agree with Casey, though. I'd rather be old and in love, than young and in love. PB and I don't feel the need to heart shape our pie. We'll take it nice and round (just like us, thanks!)

Great Spin.

[Ocean Girl]

I too have a few Valentine memories that nobody else remember.

[Diane]

funny how our brains just wipe away some memories but leave others intact. We can have a vivid memory of some random day, but the memory of our 11th birthday party is lost forever.

[Gretchen]

With my friends I'm always the one with little or no memory of the event. I always call my BFF "The Historian" because that woman remembers every single detail of everything we ever did in high school down to what we each wore and what music was playing. Amazing

[Julie]

"You are never too old for a Valentine" is a saying in my family. It comes from a story my parents tell about when they were young and in love, at dinner on Valentine's Day. The couple at the next table were silent and middle-aged. The woman said something about not getting a Valentine, and her husband snarled "You are too old for a Valentine". My parents were horrified.
So every year, even after a long separation and acrimonious divorce, one would call the other and say "You are never too old..."
This taught me something about how love survives even substantial battering at times, even as it changes form. This post inspired me to go out and buy Valentines for people I know are not expecting them.

[Jan]

Like Casey, I prefer old and in love - as she said, young love is too damn full of drama.

It's funny, I was emailing recently with *my* BFF from high school and she was relating something dumb and silly, but harmless, her teenage daughter had recently done. In her email, she said, "I had a friend when I was her age that did the same thing."

I wrote back, saying, "Yes - that would have been ME."

[Erin]

What a sweet story. I hope your BFF will guest post with another one. :-)

[Twenty Four At Heart]

I've never (to this day!) put that much work into Valentine's Day. I suppose I'm not very romantic??????

[jessica]

i have so few memories. I found myself often saying, "What? I did? I said that?"

[Gropius]

It's truly amazing what we remember and what we don't, isn't it? Half the time these days I think to myself, "Jesus, did I make that one up, or did that really happen? Am I the only one who remembers that?" This is a sweet story. I wish teens these days were up to that instead of whatever scary stuff they do that only adults should be doing. I fear for my 13 year old!!

[Christopher (AKA: CaJoh)]

Stopping by from the Spin Cycle...

I was almost thinking that the pizza or the apple pie would somehow be ruined, so I'm glad that everything turned out.

Thanks for sharing,

[kathryn]

Aw! I've got to say: I have very few memories from my childhood...all the way through college. It's kind of one. big. blur.

Terrible...just terrible. I'm convinced something horrible must've happened to me!

Maybe I spent several Valentine's Days alone?

[Patty]

Sounds like fun. This reminds me of so many of the things I did when I was 17, and boy, am I glad I am past adolescence. Fun to remember, though.