Thursday, February 14, 2019

Valentine's Day is Special for Linda and Me


Here's a picture of my really special Valentine taken almost 49 years ago on her wedding day:




Yep, it's a 1968 Ford Mustang - we loved that car! It's outside our first apartment in Chula Vista. She's about to jump in it and go get ready for her walk down the aisle.


Linda had all of five weeks to plan and execute a wedding - and she managed it extremely well. I was so happy to see that she had project management skills in addition to all of her other talents.


Back up five weeks and what day is it? Yep - it's Valentine's Day. Here's the story of that day:


Flash back to 14 February 1970 - it's a Saturday night. I'd been dating Linda seriously for about six months and we know that we are "in love." We've had a lot of fun, met each other's families, talked about the future, what we want from a marriage, and know each other pretty well.

We were invited to a Valentine's Day party at Linda's cousin's house in Ocean Beach. I'd met them before, and Sue's husband, Bill, is a funny and raunchy guy - as I thought I was. We go, and meet many of their friends, and I'm introduced as "Linda's good friend, Randy." One of the ladies (Sue's age then - maybe 40ish) corners me and says "How good a friend are you?" giving me a wink and raised eyebrow.

Without a blink, I blurt out "well, I'm proposing to her tonight, but don't tell anybody!" She says "Don't worry, I'll keep your secret" and gave me knowing glances the rest of the night. After we leave the party, she went to Sue and said "Guess what Randy told me" and tells Sue the secret (there's a lesson learned here, eh?).

We didn't go directly home, as I still have to fortify my courage a bit more. We stopped at our favorite bar, King Luis Inn, for a drink and some bar singing (we loved doing this while dating). None of the regulars were there, so I couldn't blurt out the secret to them. I had talked to my Catholic priest friend, Father Jack, who was visiting San Diego, and had suggested that we meet at the bar, so he was there when we get there. When Linda went to the ladies room, I told Father Jack my secret.

Now well fortified and well committed, I carefully drove us to Linda's apartment and we had an appropriate amorous interlude. It was time to exchange Valentine's Day cards and gifts, and I only had a card. She opened my card and inside I had written "Will you be my Valentine ... forever?" She looked at me, now down on my knees, and says "does this mean your proposing to me" and I said "Will you marry me?"

Of course, another appropriate amorous interlude occurred, and I went to my apartment an hour later. We went to the church on Sunday (after about 3 hours sleep!) and talked to the pastor, and asked him if he would marry us on 21 March 1970. He said he would, and we set off on the whirlwind five weeks of preparation and planning, that culminated in a 7-day honeymoon in Acapulco, but that's another story.

So Mr. Romantic did a pretty good job of finding an excellent woman to marry, and after 49 years we're still in love and living amicably together. It hasn't been much of a struggle. Life has been good for us with health, work, children, friends, church, hobbies, vacations, retirement, and grandchildren. We look forward to spending our 49th anniversary quietly in Chula Vista and, hopefully, making more family history in the year ahead!  I'm wondering what we will do for our 50th anniversary next year.  

We still laugh about, and appreciate, 14 February 1970.

==============================================


Copyright (c) 2019, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

3 comments:

Colleen G. Brown Pasquale said...

This is a wonderful, romantic story!

Diane Gould Hall said...

What a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing it with us Randy.

Marian B. Wood said...

So glad to read your romantic story for Valentine's Day, really a family legend (completely true) at this point!