Feb 1, 2010
A Sweet Love Story And Giveaway
First Bossy has to admit she’s never been much for holidays she believes were invented by a greeting card company. Except for the fact that it’s a chocolate-eating opportunity, Valentine’s Day never amounted to much around the Bossy house.
Except for one year when Bossy was ten.
On this particular Valentine’s Day when Bossy was ten, Bossy’s mom decided to let Bossy skip school.
The fact that Bossy’s mom let Bossy skip school wasn’t entirely uncommon. In fact, Bossy’s mom frequently let Bossy stay home so they could do something fun together.
Staying home from school in order to do something fun meant going to a rural flea market or eating sliders in a drive-thru parking lot, or even doing laundry in the sub-basement of their apartment building. Yeah, Bossy and her mom have a long history of hanging out.
But on this particular occasion when Bossy was ten and Bossy’s mom let her stay home from school, the two packed an overnight bag for a romantic Valentine’s Day getaway and they hit the road.
Hitting the road also wasn’t that uncommon for Bossy and her mom, who once climbed on a Greyhound bus with no particular destination in mind except far. But most of the pair’s wanderlust adventures took place in the family car.
And it was in this car that Bossy and her mom would settle behind the wheel — Bossy’s mom behind the actual wheel, and Bossy, in the passenger seat, mimicking her mom by placing a basket on her lap upside down and then shoving a screwdriver between the basket’s weave to act as a gearshift and then leaning a Frisbee against that to act as steering wheel.
And in this way, on that Valentine’s Day when Bossy was ten, she and her mother drove an hour outside the city to a small town called New Hope.
Bossy and her mom checked into an Inn across the river from New Hope and it was there Bossy’s mom gave Bossy a box of chocolates.
Next the two walked across the bridge into New Hope’s village and went in and out of shops and walked along the canal’s towpath, and then they collected their car in order to drive to a different Inn outside of town for dinner.
The reason Bossy and her mother drove outside of town for dinner is because this particular restaurant specialized in duck with orange sauce, which Bossy and her mother inhaled by candlelight.
And then the two retired back to their room, where they no doubt giggled right up to the brink of being kicked out of the Inn.
Thus ends the tale of Bossy’s most romantic Valentine’s Day, which was perfection except for the part where Bossy and her mom left their duck doggie bags on the back seat of the Citroën in unseasonably warm weather and therefore they had to be thrown out and yes the duck was the kind of good that Bossy and her mom still remember this critical component of that Valentine’s Day.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, See’s Candies would like to give one Bossy reader a See’s Candies Red Signature Box. But it’s not just a box! Because those See’s Candies people think of everything! No, this Red Signature Box contains two pounds of chocolate, and will arrive in time for Valentine’s Day.
Here’s what you need to do to enter: simply share your sweetest love story in Bossy’s comment section!
Well, maybe there’s more. More ways to win!
- You can visit the See’s homepage and sign up for the newsletter
- You can tweet daily about this contest using #seescandy and then post the link to your tweet in Bossy’s comment section
- You can blog about why you want to win the Share Your Sweetest Love Story with links back to this post, as well as to the See’s homepage and post the links in Bossy’s comment section
- That’s an awful lot of links linky links but it’s also a lot of chocolate
The contest will end on midnight, Friday February 5th, and the winner will be notified by email. Good luck Bossy’s council!
If only I liked chocolate…
Interestingly enough, my best Valentine’s celebration was having my son as a date
I took him to a restaurant, nothing out of the ordinary, but he felt so grown up and acted so mature! Gosh, I miss the days when he was young and let me hug him hundread times a day! He is 16 now, and he still would qualify as the perfect date for me, except…now he is really qrown up and wouldn’t pick me over his girlfriend 
My sweetest love story is with my dog Joy. We took one look at each other and fell in love. We were inseperable for 9 1/2 years. I still miss her.
On Valentine’s Day I received flowers with a card that just had an initial. I called the florist who brought the flowers thinking that they were not for me but for someone else at work–no they were for me and were someone who worked at this company. It was a large company and a number of people’s names began with this initial.
I found out three weeks later who sent them.
Four yrs later on Valentine’s Day I was asked by the person behind the first set of flowers to marry him. This past November we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary.
The florist that was the one who sent the flowers initially was the florist I used in our wedding.
I love that you had a Citroen – it’s like the ugliest car in history, but so ugly that it’s cute.
My mother once gave me a heart shaped pillow with my name embroidered on it. I still have it.
I love that CITROEN! GORGEOUS.
And I love that story, Bossy… Very sweet. And your Mom is one cool cat.
Bossy’s Mom and I shared the notion that a girl sometimes needs a “Mental Health” day off school.
My Neverending Love Story: My best friend sat on my front porch every night for almost the whole summer of 1974. We were 17. We talked for hours. Fast forward to Dec 1974. We were slow dancing at a Christmas Party. He whispered in my ear “will you marry me?”. I whispered in his hear “yes”. Five years later we were married. In September we will celebrate our 31st anniversary.
My story? Every year DH leaves work at 5 and drives to every florist in town looking for yellow roses. On Valentines Day. Because after being together for 18 years he still hasn’t learned you have to special order roses on Valentine’s Day. And you have to special order yellow roses most days.
And he never finds them and ends up at Acme or something and gets whatever he can find.
Meanwhile I’m sitting at home, with steaks growing colder by the minute and wine growing warmer by the minute, cursing him for being late.
fun mom…are you still close with her….I presume you lived in Center City Philly.
What a lovely mom and daughter combo. Just like you and your daughter.
Meleah would LOVE to enter this contest and tweet about it daily, but sadly, Meleah does not have any sweet love stories that pertain to Valentines Day. And Meleah thinks Bossy’s mom just might be the best mom ever [aside from her own mom]
that’s a really sweet story…at first i thought it was going to be all about the horse!
the most romantic thing my (now) husband ever did wasn’t all that romantic. maybe it was the first almost, sorta, romantic moment of our relationship?
Anyhoo – i used to hang with a bunch of guys that all lived together and watched nothing but sports and news and news and sports. i’m a huge sitcom fan with not much use for news, sports and sports news. one day i went to the big shared apartment and there was no one home but my hubby (who back then was still “that new guy”). without even asking what i wanted to watch, he changed to a new episode of friends right as it was starting.
during that episode was our very first cuddle
Sweetest story ever: My son was born on Sweetest Day (an other one of those Hallmark holidays). My husband has never been the mushy type, but he brought flowers to me in the hospital that night with a card that said, “This really is the sweetest day.” Awwww!
Well, it was a little too early for Valentine’s Day, but for an entirely inexplicable reason, my husband woke up at 3:45 a.m. on Sunday morning and decided to stay up. And since he was up, he decided to make me cinnamon rolls, FROM SCRATCH. He had never made anything with yeast before and had to wake his mother up to ask where the yeast was (in the refrigerator). And it took three hours, what with all the risings. And he did two rounds of dishes, too, while he was making them. So when I got up at 8 a.m., he was just finishing up the dishes, and fresh cinnamon rolls were coming out of the oven.
I had a moment where I was concerned aliens had gotten to him in the night and switched his brain with Martha Stewart’s, but then the moment passed and I ate almost an entire pan of warm cinnamon rolls and fell in love with my always surprising husband all over again.
My favorite Valentine’s Day was a couple years ago. I’d been undergoing chemo and had lost my hair. I was feeling particularly ‘poor pammie’ and in walked my boys. They had shaved their heads in solidarity with their momma! I’m crying right now at the sweetness.
I twitterated this
http://twitter.com/pammie1
YOU ATE DUCK? WHAT?
Valentine’s Day, 1990, my first as a married lady. Chicago, snow, three-hour commute from western ‘burbs home, but Froggy’s on the North Shore kept our take out warm and ready – and it was also duck a l’orange! I miss Froggy’s! Do not miss my now ex-husband.
For sweetest Valentine – my hubby sent me a $150 bouquet of a dozen roses. Let’s just say we were very very far apart. I treasured them for some time…but told him to send daisies next time. : )
Sweetest story evar was our engagement. We had dinner with 12 of our closest friends on my hubby’s birthday. Always a fan of Tolkien, he took a Hobbit approach and gave little gifts to all his friends. The guys all had pins for their favorite sports teams. The girls mini scented candles. Except me. I got a ring. The best part? Everyone was so busy checking out what they received they didn’t notice us. He asked, I said yes. One of my best girlfriends then noticed I was crying. Hubby announced to everyone that I received “something a bit different” from the rest. Much cheering ensued and the restaurant brought us champagne and dessert. Still one of my favorite memories ever. We were married a year later (the day before his birthday) and 3 years after that we welcomed our son the day before *that*. (And now a baby girl 10 days post anniversary – October’s a busy month for us.)
I don’t know about the contest, but your mom is cool almost to the point of ridiculousness. She deliberately let you stay home from school? Seriously? This is unheard of in my family. I think both my parents’ heads would explode with the concept.
But my sweetest love story is currently unfolding even as I type this and last Monday gave you a good idea as to why.
Oh, dear. Valentine’s not been a sweet and syrupy holiday for us. Flowers, chocolate, and we’re done. But I’d still like to win the See’s chocolate–because they’re the best!
My sweetest valentine story ever was that I had to go to the mayo clinic for special testing, and my husband-then-boyfriend who lived seven hours from where I did (and even further from the mayo clinic), drove through the night and through the snow to be with me in Minnesota on valentine’s day and to be with me for that testing. Everything turned out all right and I will never forget his sweet devotion.
Candy! We are not big into Valentine’s day romance, but rather we make it a love fest with the whole family and always try to make some fabulously tricky dessert.
I don’t want any chocolate, thank you, but i do want to say that my mom and I have a long history of car rides over hills like that too. We call them Tummy Ticklers.
Sweetest love story–my wonderful husband waited a decade for me–we met my freshman year of college, dated for a while, until my impetuous 18 year old self wanted to wander. After almost ten years of friendship, he moved cross country to marry me and five years later, we are getting ready to welcome baby number 2. I couldn’t be happier or more grateful for his love.
Not a sweetest love story, but the sweetest Valentine’s Day surprise for me was post-college slacker boyfriend-esque surprising me with four beautiful red tetra (I want to say “hydra” but I’m pretty sure that’s wrong) fish in a tank in my bedroom. So pretty. Not so pretty when my crazed housemate unplugged the tank and they died, but oh well! I love See’s candy.
When I was in grad school I scheduled my qualifying exam (a form of torture where a panel of faculty grill you on anything and everything they can think of in relation to a proposal you have written for research you never intend to do for 3 hours until you are begging for mercy and wish for sweet death) for February 14.
February 13 was a cold, rainy day in St. Louis, MO and I spent 10 hours studying in the biology library at the end of a harrowing 11 weeks of writing and studying. I was on the verge of a total brain meltdown.
At the end of the day, my husband offered to pick me up so I didn’t have to walk a mile in the cold rain to get home. When I got in the car, slinging my backpack into the seat behind me and sighing a long, beleaguered sigh, he handed me a soggy blue package, saying “Happy Valentine’s Day”. Until then I had completely forgotten about it. I opened the package to find “Singin’ in the Rain” on DVD. I cried like a baby. We went home to watch it and it was the best V Day I’ve ever had.
Almost 33 yrs ago I recieved a card with a little man in a suit of armour with a big arrow sticking out of the heart! Inside it said, “you’ve pierced my armour”
I married that man and still have the card, cheesy yes but it made me melt!
My mom & I had that kind of relationship. I miss her every day. It’s hard to pick one story, but our best times were at a lake in Winsted, Connecticut with lots of parties & art classes & swimming & boating & skiing and my mother’s carved watermelons filled with fruit salad.
As far as any other kind of love story, I’m still waiting for the right woman to come along. Perhaps once I’ve moved back East. (Soon, soon!)
BTW, I used to live in New Hope. The town you stayed in was Lambertville, just across the river. I used to walk across that bridge on days off to go to the coffee shop or Cafe Galleria or the wine store (because they had a better wine store than we had in New Hope). It’s a gorgeous place.
bossy’s pictures of bossy and bossy’s mom are wonderful…in fact I’m going to go grab my daughter right now and go far away in a bus. I love the two of you as Dynamic Duo!
Gah. I don’t need more chocolate, so I’ll pass on entering.
We had fallen on particular hard times in Oklahoma–back in 1985–bottom fell out of the oil industry-many businesses closed over night-Bartlesville became like a ghost town due to problems with Reda Pump and Phillips Petroleum Co.–my husbands drinking escalated and we lost everything. Ended up living in a Salvation Army Shelter for 30 days then assisted by the state with living for the next year. Every day was a struggle. Finally moved to LA–huge city-huge changes. Husband got sober, things turned around, got very good very fast. Husbands business took off like a rocket. Was living in Studio City at the base of Hollywood Hills just South of Ventura Blvd. He bought me a 3 carat center cut diamond surrounded by 2 carats of diamonds and took me out to Universal Studios during their Halloween Haunt event–(our annivarsary time) we ate a wonderful meal at Gladstones and we were walking around enjoying ourselves emensley–there was a hugh moon and you could actually see some stars which is unusual itself for LA–there were fog machines going to make it feel scarey and creatures running around in costumes and some lurking about with chainsaws chasing others and everyone was having a great time. Then my handsome husband looked at me at took my hand and dropped down to one knee and said “You have been by my side through thick and thin, good times and unimagiably hard times, I have put you through things no man has a right to put any woman through and expect them to still be there. But here you are. I want to be able to give you one of those mansions upon that hill unstead of just looking up at them, and maybe some day I will be able to. But for now I give you this, and when I do I know I am giving you something ever bit as nice or nicer than any woman up there has.” Then he took out the ring and replaced the band that was purchased from some five and dime. It’s a real stunner. Sometimes I feel embrassed by its grandness but it never fails to capture that feeling I felt at the time. Since then I have developed a brain tumor, he has lost his business due to my illness (2800.00 monthly premimuns due to pre-existing illness clause) and we have moved back to Oklahoma and live with my sister. Life sure has its ups and downs. I have told him many times we should sell it and he refuses. He says he wants to hang on to it for as long as possible becuase it symbolizes so much for him. I believe he has the mistaken idea that his worthiness is wrapped up in that ring but he says it makes him feel proud of being able to give me something so nice. Something that many women do not possess and their husbands have the means to do it. I think he sees it as an act of unselfishness and I looked at it as vanity. We truly do need to not judge people, circumstances and things. And guess what, he is still here-after losing everything on count of me. The end.
When Mr. Wonderful and I were JUST starting to date that day they call Valentine came upon us. We went to dinner WITH A FRIEND, dutch, I had to pay for my own dinner. Ofter dinner I gave Mr. Wonderful a gift, a homemade gift, from the heart. It was chocolate cookies. Not just any Chocolate cookies but chocolate cookies that I had also put cherry hearts on with white chocolate frosting. I cut the hearts out of the cherries by hand and lovingly put them on the cookies. After several days he had not one time mentioned these cookies of love so I asked him how he liked them. He said they were okay but that the CHERRY HEARTS HAD RUINED THEM.
I loved that tale of you and your mom, and I’m loving the comments.
The sweetest thing that ever happened to me? My long-distance boyfriend had come to California at Christmastime to pack me and my cottage and cat up and drive me to (ack!) Lubbock, TX to move in with him. He knew I had never had a Christmas tree of my own since I had moved out on my own. So when we got to my cottage (a chicken coop many years previously!), he got out a package and made me open it. Inside was a foot-tall fake Christmas tree, tiny ornaments, and a bandana to act as the Christmas tree skirt. When we were all done setting up the tree and decorating it, he said, “Every Christmas tree needs a present underneath it!” and put a small, square wrapped package under the tree. Which, of course, I was supposed to open immediately. Inside was an engagement ring…which I still wear, 16 years later. Oh, man, it made me all mushy when he did that!
I never win anything, so I’m not entering, I just had to say that this is beautiful and sweet and wonderful and Bossy’s mom is gorgeous and looks an awful lot like Bossy!
In 1966, my new-to-me stepbrother brought home a friend from work. 6′4″, curly blond hair, kind and humorous brown eyes, quiet, smart (see I’m not always shallow). Crush. At one point we got to the almost engaged point, but then I got scared and sent him a dear John letter. But I remembered him.
Thirty-five years later, I looked him up on the interwebs to apologize for that letter, but it took me five more years to get up the nerve to call him. That was October three years ago, we start our fourth year together next week.
Bossy knows she’s just made her Mom’s day, right? Thanks for sharing that sweet story. Bossy and her Mom are both clearly very special people!
These stories are great and I love reading them! (I also love chocolate.) My story goes like this: when I starting dating my Husband, a hundred and sixteen years ago when we were still in college, I told him once that I loved reading the cards my Dad sent to my Mom, which he signed, “I love you, always and all ways.” And now when I get cards and flowers, my Husband signs the cards the same way my Dad did. Which is why it’s not such a bad thing to marry a guy like your Dad.
I have no sweet Valentine’s Day stories, but I loved all the pictures of Bossy with her mom. So sweet.
I grew up near a road almost like that and would drive it every day.
Everyday is a vaeintine story at my house.
On VDay 1996, I was living in CO and my boyfriend was living in CA. I hopped a plane on Feb 14th and flew to San Diego to ask him to marry me.
This was before 9/11, so passengers could be met at the gate by their loved ones. I had distributed paper hears to complete strangers on the plane that each had a different word: “Will” “You” “Marry” “Me” and I carried a big “?”. I also passed out a camera, champagne and glasses.
Then, as each person exited the plane, they went up to my about-to-be-newly-betrothed and gave him the hearts and champagne. I exited the plane last with the pilots and had the question mark.
He said YES and we have been married for 12.5 years now.
My sweetest love story: With my mom, 3am, in the hospital as she was dying from pancreatic cancer. She was trying to think of women my dad could marry when she died, I asked her how she could even think that. Her reply: “I hope your dad loved being married to me so much that he would honor me by marrying again and want to have it with someone else.”
Post script–my dad married my mom’s best friend, just as she wanted. I told the above story at their wedding.
One of my sweetest valentines is a very simple, hug, kiss, and an “I love you” from my nieces.
Wow… I can’t get over some of these stories. You all deserve the big box of choccies. (I only like dark chocolate).
Can’t enter the contest for reasons too boring to mention, but just had to say how much I love this post. that’s all I have to say – - not being able to enter the contest makes me write boring too!
I’m smack in the middle of mine.
In 1993 I had a very rare form of bone cancer, and was given 15% odds of surviving the year. (Obviously, I beat the odds!) Halfway through my treatment I decided to hire a personal trainer to help me boost my physical strength, figuring it might help my odds and if it didn’t, at least I’d have a smoking body in my casket! Trainer and I hit it off immediately, had MASSIVE chemistry and eventually became best friends outside the gym…but never anything more than friends, because we were both involved with other people at the time. Then I moved across the country, and we lost contact fifteen years ago. We both married other people, and then divorced.
Eleven months ago he found me online and we’ve been doing the long-distance thing ever since, with daily marathon Skype conversations and email tomes. It is comfortable and familiar and complete, everything I’ve ever thought a partnership should be but didn’t think I’d find myself. He has been deployed in the Middle East since we began our latest chapter, and we are now in the bizarre situation of being completely, head over heels in love with someone we know better than anyone on the planet….but we’ve never been on a date, and we’ve never kissed or held hands.
He is coming home to me – yes, we are moving in together immediately, we are THAT kind of certain – late next week. A first kiss seventeen years, one cancer diagnosis and one deployment in the making.
I live only half an hour from New Hope! Love it there! Almost as much as I lurrrved dis entry! So sweet!
I actually have two love stories to share because both are very dear to me.
When I was a first year senior (I had two senior years) in college there was a very cute transfer student who was in two of my art classes. I was really attracted to him and one day mid semester I decided to take a chance because I thought he was a very good person. I started to leave him anonymous notes in his art locker. They were one or two lines taken from different songs that referred to smiles because I thought he had the greatest smile. I left two a week for about a month. A few of us in the art department decided to go see The Addams Family movie. We had made arrangements and I was supposed to pick this cute guy up and go to the movies. At the last minute everyone in our group canceled so it was just the two of us. Since it was right before winter break I took a chance knowing that if he didn’t reciprocate my feelings I’d have two weeks at home to ride out my embarrassment. I made a tape (yes, tape) with all the songs that I took the lines from. After the movie I dropped him back off and when he got out of the car I rolled down the window and told him he forgot something and threw the cassette tape at him and took off. The next time I saw him in class he said “So it was you.” And so it began.
Four years later we got married.
The Huz is not very romantic, but he’s pretty clever when he tries. I appreciate flowers but can think of better ways to spend money. I am a working artist and use many different materials. One day he came home from work and had one hand behind his back and said “I got something for you.” I told him he shouldn’t have wasted his money on flowers and he brought his hand forward and had a dozen glue sticks! It was awesome, just perfect.
Christina
cgwms2000[at]yahoo[dot]com
My daughter was born on Feb 15, so I spent all Valentines Day in labor that year. After daughter was born, everyone sent heart balloons and choc, now that was the best
Our preemie twins were due on 3-3-03 but made a surprise appearance just after Christmas. After several perilous weeks one left his brother and was released from the hospital on Feb 7 to come home. The other waited another week to come home on Feb. 14. It was the sweetest Valentine’s Day as a new family. The following year, son #3 was born on our wedding anniversary and every year has been blissful chaos since.
I don’t have a great Valentine’s ememory, but I would if I won these choclates!
Whoa! Bossy’s mom is hot! I suspect she is still/> ho0t and so I think you should send the chocolate to her, from me.
I met my husband online on November 26, 2000. I married him exactly two years later to the date. I did not meet him i person until November 25, 2002. So, in reality, I married him less than 24 hours after I really “met” him. We’ve been married over seven years. Can I have chocolate now.
Now THAT was a great story Bossy. I am NOT entering this contest (imagine said box of chocolates and Aussie summer… yeah, sloppy chocs not my idea of romantic!). However…
I once had a guy who wanted to marry me so bad, he met me at the airport with a gift-wrapped mango (you heard – fruit in cellophane) who took me for romantic picnics by wooded creeks, who bought me a lovey-dovey heart ring and even ruined his new Nikes digging up a drain to impress my father. All within two days. I was shocked to the core.
Needless to say – I married someone else.
BB
one year in high school I received a dozen roses from my boyfriend, delivered to the school. an hour later, I received 13 roses from my dad with a note that said “I love you more than your boyfriend does.”
Last year, my first winter in Chicago (first winter north of the Mason-Dixon line and certainly the first winter with snow and sub-freezing temperatures), I was suffering mightily from Seasonal Affective Disorder. What’s a gal to do in dreary cold Chicago? Instead of take me out to a restaurant or buy me already-dead flowers, my boyfriend took me to the Lincoln Park Conservatory and sat with me in the warm and humid orchid room for hours while I soaked it all in. I was so happy I could have cried.
My husband proposed to me on V Day with a ring in a velvet rose-shaped ring box. So sappy!
Ooohh! Those hills! You have to yell “FEEL YOUR GUTS!” when you launch over them. It is a Fooleryland rule.
Once upon a time (c. 1993) Foolery was a confused young woman dating two different men at once. While she was sleeping with neither of them she was a very good friend of “Lars,” and grossly attracted to both guys. “Lars” didn’t even CALL her on Valentine’s Day. Foolery sat at home crying and wondering how “Lars” could be so callous? Then the phone rang, and it was the other guy, who knew that he was the second choice.
“Hey, you doing anything? Want to go get dinner?” YUP.
And that’s how Foolery began dating Nick Asshat and providing herself with future blog fodder. Thankfully, Foolery married a great guy (NOT Nick Asshat) five years later, but she *is* meeting “Lars” for lunch on Friday. (Blog fodder.)
I loved the story of Bossy and her mom. I understand why you live near her!
I met my husband 40 years ago in my freshman year of college. It was love at first sight! About two weeks later, we were at a party together in my friend’s dorm room. Well, I wound up drinking too much wine, and then I suddenly got very sick to my stomach. (I sure broke up that party!) But my husband held back my long hair and stayed by my side all through the night. I was so mortified the next day, but I realized what a true sweetheart he was. Four years later, we got married, and today he is still that loving accepting man. (And, no, I never drank like that again!)
BOSSY- I’m all choked up- that was the sweetest post with the sweetest photos! You look just like your mom- both Beautiful women!
My husband Kevin Bacon proposed to me last Valentines Day in an over-the-water hut in Bora Bora, right after he broke it off with What’s Her Name Sedgwick. He told me I’d never have to work again, as long as I accompanied him on location to all his movie shoots. Then I woke up.
The End.
p.s. I would share some real-life love affairs, but this isn’t Halloween and you didn’t ask for horror stories.
p.s.s.t. Bossy has the best mother ever.
#45 – Stephanie – I HAVE TO KNOW HOW IT GOES FOR YOU!! Amazing story…
The year I came home to an apartment filled with balloons and chocolate and roses. That was a good one
You look just like your mom!! What good genes run in your family!
I’m just in shock over your perfect memory when you were ten. Shit. I can’t remember jack. And this story made ME wish I had a mom who would stretch with me in matching black leotards.
I’m so floored about that whole story and the work you put into it, I can not recall one sweet memory from a Valentine’s Day I had.
My goodness people leave long comments for Bossy.
This is my favorite valentines day.
BTW, my mom and I used to do yoga together. Well, reportedly I climbed all over her when she was trying to yoga. TO A RECORD! (yes an LP)
When I couldn’t deal with any wedding preparations for our (very spontaneous) wedding anymore, my almost-husband spent two days visiting rooms all over Manhattan to find the perfect one with the perfect view for our 24h honeymoon. He did, and then we had the loveliest honeymoon ever.
Okay, so: Bossy’s mother was 12 when Bossy was born, and Bossy was 12 when Bossy-Son was born? What’s up with all these young looking moms?
Loved the childhood era photos.
Love story? Still living it. Every morning for the past 27-plus years, Husband and I do a momentary pause, check to see if it’s still true for this particular day, and then tell each other “I love you again today!”
Wow, Bossy’s mom is as sexy as Bossy, no wonder Bossy is so nice, learned it at home.
My wife isn’t very romantic on Valentine’s Day. Usually I am the one doing things. Our first year, after we met and dated and I had to go back to far away town to work a while I visited a florist near where she worked and arranged to have a miniature yellow rose delivered twice a week for several months. Until I called and asked her to move to California with me. Guess it worked as she said yes.
We both love See’s. Thanks for the offer. I hope you get some too.
My sweetest story won’t fit in your comments section. So I will link you to where I wrote about it last July. And the July before that.
http://vintagethirty.blogspot.com/2009/07/doesnt-it-seem-like-just-year-ago-we.html
My better half thinks the whole flowers on Valentiine’s Day is a crock – cooked up by the card and flowers companies. So he refuses to buy me flowers on that day, because it is expected, common, and therefore not romantic at all.
But I frequently get a bouquet the day on February 14, or February 18. And a lovely handwritten letter on V-day.
Love that guy!!
My boyfriend had a job 2,000 miles away from me. Me, unsuspecting me, with my head bent over the IBM Selectric with which I filled out forms in quintiplicate as a staff drudge at a major California university. Boyfriend proposed, on Valentine’s Day, in the “Love Classified” section of the student newspaper. All day long, students and professors dropped by my desk and smirkingly asked what my answer would be. I ate a half-pound of See’s dark chocolates while equivocating. That was the sweet part. The sweetest part was flying off to marry boyfriend and continuing to eat See’s dark chocolates whenever possible (even shipping them 2,000 miles from California).
Acher’s husband has done some sweet things for her, its just that none of them happened on or near Valentine’s Day. We both think Valentine’s Day is kind of hokey.
That in mind, senior year of college, Acher’s boyfriend (now husband) gave her a set of used jumper cables, three packs of smokes wrapped in resume paper, and a bottle of wine. He even located glass glasses in his fraternity house for the wine. While most girls would have been rather upset, Acher had a good laugh about it, and then drank some wine!
Your story about you and your mom reminded me of me and my daughter. It was always just the two of us and even though she is married, we are as close as ever. SHE is my love story.
My sweet story involves my mom too. She went out of town one year and so she left me a card and some bars of my favorite chocolate. I woke up and found it, complete surprise. It was really very nic.
My dear departed father was the kind of guy that, BACK IN THE DAY, would have 3 martini lunches on the Paramount Lot and then one day he realized that 3 martini lunches are not conducive to being an awake human and father so he swore off the booze altogether and became Super Father and one Valentines Day left 2 dozen red roses, a bottle of Chanel 5 and a 500 dollar bill was left on each of his three daughter’s door steps JUST TO MAKE THEM FEEL LIKE CAROL LOMBARD FOR ONE DAY.
I was going to say, “FTLOG, just give me the candy. I’ve got a Valentine’s Day Candy-Givin’ Daddy Who Died Too Young” story,” but, then I read #7 Little Miss Sunshine State/s post, and I thought, “What the HeDoublehockeysticks, just give her the candy.”
-My love story has nothing to do with romance and there are actually three stories with three different men. These men were introduced to me after long anonymous courtships. Nine months long to be exact. As I met each one, I thought my heart would burst from love. They were/are the most precious, gorgeous, wonderful, loving men (people) in my life and I can’t imagine not knowing and loving each one. My sons.
Now… OMG. Your mom rocks! I see where you get your good looks and to have the kind of memories you have is awesome! I love your family, Bossy.
What a great story. Made me miss my mom and my daughter. My mom used to send me these fabulous goodie baskets for v-day whether it was a phase of my life where I had a boyfriend / husband or not. She was always my sweetheart. I lost her to breast ca a few years ago and found myself doing those same little baskets for my daughter. Got one on the counter right now ready to send off to college.
My story is only half sweet – his half. I have a website and sometimes people email me nice things, and I answer most everyone, but don’t pay too much attention always, and one guy emailed me and I paid attention, on and off, for an entire year. I wasn’t very nice with my fickle attention, not nice at all, and I regret my behaviors to this day, some of which are too mean to ever talk about, but the guy kept it up and he kept it up and when one day, I happened to be in his state on business, he drove two hours to take me to dinner. Now it is a year and a half after that dinner, and we are getting married in October because he is one persistent and determined man, even though I was mean, mean, mean.
I was conceived on Valentine’s day- or the day before (my mom’s birthday). My birthday is November 14th- exactly nine months.
My husband does the 14 days of Valentine. I get something every day with home made cards. This year he said the theme is what our marriage is about – smiles and laughter and support of each other. Yesterday I got a Will Ferrell SNL DVD. I’m excited to see what I get today!!! He is the love of my life – I guess that is my love story when you get right down to it…..
My husband has made dinner every night for the past twenty years. I can’t think of a better love story, can you? I’d LOVE to win the See’s chocolates so I can give them to him.
My husband and I really don’t do anything to celebrate Valentine’s Day. But on impulse For Valentine’s Day a few years I made him a copy of some of my journal pages from when we were dating and engaged to show him how I felt about him even back then. His reaction to reading those entries is something I treasure as a special memory.
It’s not a Valentine’s story but it’s a mom-love story. When I was young, every year my mother would pull me out of school one afternoon in March and we would drive across the Walt Whitman Bridge and go to the Philadelphia Flower Show. I loved seeing every single exhibit, but the miniatures were always my favorite. Then we would head out to a very nice dinner, someplace with a salad bar because I loved salad bars, just the two of us. And every year right about this time, I think of it and wish we could do it again. If I won the chocolates, I would love to share them with my own children like my mom would have.
The sweetest love story I know is the story of my parents. Mom was 17 (in 1947) and engaged to a young man in the Army who was leaving to go overseas. This young man asked a friend of his to watch out for his bride to be. He did. They fell in love and the friend asked this young girl to marry him. When she told her parents, they pleaded with her to wait until she was 18 (I guess engagements in those days were short). They did. She turned 18 on 10/28 and they were married on 11/5! They lived in a 15′ travel trailer in a small trailer park. The trailer had no bathroom. Dad would shower in the public restroom in the trailer park, but Mom wasn’t brave enough to do that. She’d get picked up by her Mom and shower at her parent’s house. After a year of marriage, their first child was born. They moved into a small duplex, feeling like it was the Taj Majal after that trailer. Four years later, another child came. Through the ups and downs of any marriage, they perservered. I grew up knowing that my parents had a deep and abiding love for each other. I saw it in action. The hand holding, the sitting on dad’s lap, the respect, the twinkle in the eye, I never doubted their love. Their hopes and dreams for a good life were fulfilled. Life was good. Mom was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, occular melanoma, a cancer in the eye. Her treatment was unbearable, but somehow she managed, with Dad by her side. It was his cancer too. He suffered all the indignities that Mom experienced. A few years later, Mom was once again give a cancer diagnosis, this time in her breast. She went through chemo, hair loss, radiation, and extreme fatigue. Dad cooked her meals, cleaned the house, and fielded all calls. He sent out e-mails daily to a host of family and friends. Each one was sent with tears that just poured out of him, sending those e-mails was his release. The treatment of her breast cancer was a success. Lot’s of traveling and buying and selling of RV’s, getting bigger and better with each transaction. On a trip to visit me, I noticed Mom was extremely tired. She’d fall asleep in the middle of a sentence. She was holding a hot cup of coffee and fell asleep, spilling it in her lap. When they returned home, she began bleeding from her bowels. A trip to the hospital and another cancer diagnosis was given. Now in the colon and stage 4. I’ll never forget the day she got the news in the hospital. She called each of us in, one by one, and said everything to us that was in her heart. It was beautiful to hear, yet so painful at the same time. She apologized to Dad because she didn’t want to leave him alone. She expressed sorrow in knowing that she wouldn’t see my children grow to be the person they were meant to be, their careers, their marriages. She told me she loved me, that I was a good mother (this coming from the best mother in the world), and a good wife. Dad was at her side all day everyday. He told her he loved her everynight when he went home. He cried everynight as he went to sleep alone. Mom died after only 9 months. It’s now been a year and a half. Dad has not spent a night in their bed since the day Mom died. He sleeps in a recliner in the living room. They were married just shy of 60 years. A huge part of my Dad died that day, too. His joy is gone. But the love for Mom is still there.
Sweetest Love Story: My parents met on a train. Could there be any more romantic way to meet?! Georgia was traveling with her mother when Ward, who was all of 18, introduced himself. Georgia was 15 but only two weeks shy of turning 16 which she knew was a much older sounding age. So when he asked, she told him she was 16. And he said later that if she had said she was 15 he wouldn’t have stayed and chatted with them. Whew. He charmed her mom because he was no fool and they kept in touch after that. They married when she was 21.
Weird Chocolate Story: I once had a boss who kept chocolates in the office to bring to clients. She was a chocolate fiend especially during some parts of the month. And she asked me to hide the chocolates from her so she wouldn’t eat them. Because self control was not an option apparently. A few weeks later she told me she had found the chocolates anyway. By sniffing around the office. She found them with her nose.
My Dad always gets my Mom,sister and me (his girls) a box of chocolates on Valentines day. He’s a big softie. And I love celebrating with my husband of 21 years!
When my husband Rob and I were dating, about 15 years ago, I decided to send a barbershop quartet to his office to serenade him on Valentine’s Day. Fortunately for me, his office was home to a number of good spirited pranksters. A quick call to his boss got the office in on the plan. The company happened to specialize in multimedia, so a film crew was set up in the lobby of their office to record the entire event.
When the quartet arrived, Rob was ushered to the lobby, to greet his entire cast of coworkers and the tuxedo clad barbershop quartet. He blushed, hemmed and hawed, and ultimately enjoyed a serenade of Let Me Call You Sweetheart and various other romantic harmonies.
On Valentine’s Day to this day, we still bring out that video and remember our early days of falling in love, and the siliness and fun we had together. Our love has brought us two fun and silly children now, so the story will never end.
No love story—but just a shout-out that Sees Candy is the BEST!!!!
GRAMPS
Bossy, If you don’t, I will send Jeri (85) a box of chocolates and I want her to go share them with her sweet dad and read him the story that she wrote. I’m still weeping- blubbering like a baby and I’m at Work!!!
That was the sweetest story that I’ve ever read.
i loved your story. i grew up a single kid with a single mom, and we were always Quite the Duo, too.
sweetest love story:
my last girlfriend, the big one, the one i will always be a little bit in love with, was not a big shower-of-affection. so the little things mattered: she did the dishes every day and i heard “i love you” in that; we hyphenated our puppy’s last name and i heard “i love you” in that. so. for the first many months of our relationship, we never fought – we were dreamy-blissful and happy. then one day, right after a trip to Ikea to buy our first shared property (a large green bookshelf called the Billy, which, after its purchase, sat unassembled and complicated-looking next to our boxes and boxes and stacks and stacks of books in the living room), i took a shower, and found a lump. it was terrifying. it had never happened before. i cried and blubbered and freaked out and didn’t tell my mother and made a doctor’s appointment and, tearful and scared, told the girlfriend. she wanted to go to the doctor with me. i said no. i don’t know why. i wanted to deal with it alone. i was Trying to Be Strong.
she was furious. it was our first fight. we both yelled, and she stormed out, slamming the door. the apartment reverberated. through the window, i watched her drive away. her car was burgundy. i remember that i couldn’t chase her because she was late to work and i was late to the doctor’s appointment.
it was many hours later that i got home. the doctor had said that everything was ok, and i was light with the news and still hot and puffy from all the crying. i hadn’t told her yet.
when i walked in, the bookshelf was assembled. all of our books were unpacked, and lined up neatly on its shelves. she had left a note that said that she’d constructed the whole thing while topless.
i felt like some character in a movie who was walking into a room filled wall to wall with roses. it was that wonderful.
I will pass on the giveaway because I myself gave away some See’s candy last year… but just wanted to say that I love the Bossy and Bossy’s Mom stories and especially the photos.
A month after my now-husband and I met, he stayed up until almost midnight and baked two red velvet cakes (my favorite) until he got it just right – for my birthday.
My mom’s birthday is on February 15th so Valentine’s Day is a little extra special in our family. And Mom gave me a (Russell Stover) chocolate strawberry marshmellow-y heart every year for Valentine’s… even when I went to college… and she stuffed that heart in a greeting card and mailed it off to me. It arrived in my dorm mailbox smushed beyond recognition and because we were so far away (45 miles? hehe) it was the best strawberry marshmellow heart ever. My mom died of cancer a couple years after that but I still usually buy myself a RS heart every year for Valentine’s Day, think of her, and smile.
My first date with my husband of 25 years was Valentine’s Day 30 years ago. We met while living in the dorms, and he invited me out to the restaurant of my choice (I chose Chinese, he doesn’t care for Chinese, the sweetie) and being the hungry soul that I was (dorm food? schmorm food) I ate all of mine, and more than half of his. We were very poor and I knew I wouldn’t be seeing the inside of a restaurant again anytime soon.
Did I miss that class on first impressions and eating like a bird? Ai-yi-yi. That man loves me.
That would be the boyfriend who was the first to make any sort of effort when it came to V-Day.. Took me out for (coincidentally) a Chinese lunch. When I got home my mom told me I had had a delivery. A little heart shaped box of chocolates and red roses! I was SO touched.
I love the relationship you and your mom appear to have
I too am the mom who enforces ‘Mental Health Days’ and am spontaneous and fun. My girls are my friends, and darn wonderful ones too boot 
Amazing in the first pictures how much you look like your Mom
I don’t have a love story and it’s too much work for a box of chocolates i don’t need to win, but! I did want to say that I so very much enjoyed reading about your relationship with your mother and if my own children remember our relationship the way your write about yours, with you, I will have succeeded as a mom. And, I want them to want to hang with me the way you still hang with your mom, today. I LOVE THAT. My mom died suddenly nearly 3 years ago…and I miss her.
darn it, another typo…from the above comment: i meant to say this: ” … if my own children remember our relationship the way you write about yours, with YOUR MOM, I will have succeeded as a mom …”
sheesh, jeannie.
it was a wonderful memory and i loved reading it, Bossy.
thus far, my sweetest love story is not the guy who nearly forced me into my first kiss by threatening to not get me home in time for curfew. or the **significantly** older guy who used me for other things, willing though i was, I was too young to realize what was going on. It was probably the guy who bought me a dozen miniature multi-colored roses on sweetest day because he was sweet and he liked me. The guy who walked me to my door and gave me what I, to this day, consider to be my *true* first kiss with me standing on the cement step and him on the ground and giving me a friend hug and pulling back into that Hollywood Theatrically perfect close-ness and kissing the most perfect kiss ever. Ever. Still gives me butterflies. That is my sweetest love story, for now. I’m signing up for Match this weekend, so hopefully I can top that soon!
I don’t really have any romantic stories. Geez, that’s sad! Anyway just wanted to say that New Hope is one of the few things I miss about living in SE PA. Great little town!
My sweetest love story is actually my parents: They both left their southern homes one summer (at age 18 and 19, respectively) to work in Yellowstone National Park. My mom worked at a soda fountain, my dad at a service station next door. A year later, they returned as a married couple. Up until a few years ago, you could still go see the sidewalk in front of the soda fountain with their initials in it. 30+ years later they are still married and totally retarded for eachother. So sweet!
Once upon a time I was in college and I was engaged to a guy that ordered tulips from Holland for me for Valentine’s Day. From Holland.
I dumped him. (Not *then* for heaven’s sake, but later.)
And, this morning, my three year-old, Henry, climbed into bed with me and curled up beside me and wrapped his little arms around my neck and patted my cheek. “Mama, I am your lovey. And you are my lovey. We are the loveys.”
Before we were married, one Valentine’s Day my husband (then-boyfriend) made me a video card. It was hands down the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me. The short iMovie features photos of us doing all our favorite things together, and has an interlude in the middle where he videotaped me one day being silly on the beach and writing our initials, D+K, equaling a heart in the sand. We eventually wed and the symbol at our wedding was a D and a K together, and the equation has totally stuck since then.
I met the love of my life on April Fool’s Day 1968. We started dating in October 1969 and had 40 years of love stories together. One time on vacation in Las Vegas he gave me his wallet (with $2,000+ in it) to pay for some groceries (really booze) and I left it on the check-out counter. An hour or more later when I realized what I had done he acted like it was nothing – “it’s only money, we can replace money.” Happy ending – the cashier had spotted the wallet & put it in her cash drawer, we recovered it soon after realizing that it was missing.
My sweetest love story has nothing to do with Valentine’s Day, but when my husband and I were first dating, he took me on a surprise trip – just told me to get in the car and wouldn’t tell me where we were going. We ended up at a state park along the Tawas Bay, where we walked on the beach, ogled the lighthouse, and sat and watched the sunset. It was perfect, and I got some great pictures out of the day, too, including my favorite one ever of my husband.
My love story is the day my parents came to adopt ONE baby and ended up getting two because there were actually 4 of us altogether and the orphanage didn’t want to split us up 4 different ways. So my parents agreed to take my brother and me and another couple took the other two………….my parents ALWAYS told us how special we were because they “picked us out”.