I overheard a couple shopping at the Rocky Mount Bulluck Warehouse Sale the other day. (I eavesdrop a lot, or as I prefer to think of it, pay attention to what people are saying around me.) They were buying furniture, and the husband joked that the purchase was the wife’s anniversary present. They will soon be married for 42 years.
“Tell him it’s for Valentine’s Day,” the sales clerk joked back.
“Oh, we’re too old for that,” the man said. “We don’t do that stuff anymore.”
I had to bite my tongue. Too old for Valentine’s Day? Never. I always use the holiday for a special meal, roses, and candy. Sometimes I even buy something for my husband.
See, I believe in romance. The old-fashioned kind, where the man woos the woman. You can find this type of romance on the sitcoms of yesteryear, still broadcast on MeTV. Programs like “Leave It to Beaver” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”
My most recent column talks about two episodes I saw recently, one from each show, that portray “a time when manners, chivalry, and propriety—along with feminine wiles—were considered to be part of a courtship.”
To read more about how the Cleavers viewed teenage dating or how some folks in Mayberry went about getting a wife, click here: http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/Patsy-Pridgen
Maybe you’ll remember these episodes—or the times they depict. Hope you had an old-fashioned romantic Valentine’s Day.
Patsy Pridgen 
I don’t think you are ever “too old” for romance. My parents were married for 65 years and after they passed away, I found all of their Valentine’s Day cards to each other in a big box. I had to take my Daddy to buy her last Valentine’s Day card, in 2010, along with some pink roses, which were her favorites. While we were at the florist, getting her roses, he told me and the florist that my Mother had always been his “sweetheart” because they never let their love go sour. The florist asked him what was their secret and he told her one simple word… “commitment”. Then he added, with a big smile on his face, “If milk goes sour, you have to throw it out and we never did like to waste anything.” My Mother passed away a month later and my Daddy passed away six weeks to the day, after that. When I went to the florist to pick out the flowers for my Mother’s funeral, the florist told me that now every time she used pink roses, she thought of my parents and “commitment”. When my Daddy passed away we used a flag to cover his coffin, since he was a Veteran, but at the visitation, I noticed a bud vase with one perfect pink rose on a table next to the coffin. The little card had one word typed on it “commitment”. The florist had left it when she delivered another arrangement. I guess real romance is really all about everlasting commitment.
Oh by the way, “Thelma Lou” still lives in Mount Airy, at the Ridgecrest Retirement Community, where my parents were. She is quite the local “celebrity”. I told her I remembered her from her role as a southern belle high school girl in the movie, Cheaper By the Dozen, with Clifton Webb. I think she was “tickled pink” that someone had remembered her doing other acting roles besides being Thelma Lou. LOL
LikeLike
Barbara, your response is better than my post. What a wonderful example of a wonderful marriage. I love the story of the bud vase with the pink rose in it on a table next to the coffin.
Although I knew “Thelma Lou” lives in Mount Airy, I didn’t know she was in a retirement home now. And I can’t say that I remember her in any other role–glad you did and told her so. Thanks for reading my blog and for your interesting comments.
LikeLike