Ailantha
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

A Valentine's Day Memory

2/14/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
Buy them on Amazon.

​
​A VALENTINE'S DAY MEMORY

Picture
     Today I came across this post from a friend on my Facebook page: 
Picture
      This message suddenly brought me back to the days of giving and receiving those ever-popular little paper Valentine's cards that back then used to look like this , 
Picture
Picture
Picture
...while I went by Patsy Ann Rupp and looked like this:
Picture
     Looking back, I remember when I was in grade school I used to send not one but three cards to each of the shy, unpopular kids in my class because I was worried they wouldn't get enough Valentines and I figured they probably needed a little extra love, anyway.
        Not, to be clear, that I was among the cool, popular kids. Au contraire, during those 'tween years I ran - make that walked - in the social slow lane. I knew not the facts of life. (I'm not talking about the sex facts of life, though I didn't know those, either, but the  life facts of life). I had no fashion sense (as exhibited in the above photo). I still played with Barbies at age 13. (See post from 3/6/2014, "Our Barbies, Ourselves"). 
Picture
       But none of that mattered, because during those years I had something even more important than social savvy or kid coolness. I had a kind of social Kevlar which permitted  me to bobble about the 'tween shark-tank blissfully oblivious of my low social status and hence relatively unscathed: I had a best friend.  
          Here's a quote from a blog I posted on 2/12/2014 called "Me And My Twinkie," in which I recounted my middle school friendship with Michelle and in which I compared us to two Twinkies in a package, 
Picture
​​...back in the good old days when Twinkies came two to a package:
        Did you ever see the movie "Dick" with Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams as the best friends?
        That was my friend Michelle and me in middle school.
        Except that we never accidentally 
baked a batch of pot cookies or got in trouble with the secret service, though, like the movie best friends Betsy and Arlene,  we did once write letters to the President (Kennedy). We mostly spent our time practicing our dance moves to Beatles records in front of the magnificent mirror that took up one wall of Michelle's living room;  walking to C&M, our neighborhood deli of choice, for a popsicle or a Tastykake; sewing miniature clothes and collecting fashionable outfits for our Barbies..alas for us, Barbies and Beatles did somewhat overlap. About the worst thing we ever did was catch a bad case of poison sumac  from scavanging through a mangy field for old soda bottles to return  to the A&P for the deposit money.  We were good girls.   
      So individually,  Michelle and I were probably too  naive and ingenuous, too close to the antithesis of what was considered "cool" among the pre-adolescent crowd of the early 1960's to have advanced  very far up the middle school food chain; but together we were  accepted among our classmates as a unit. And who cared if we weren't?  With each other we were comfortable and complete as two Twinkies  sealed in their cellophane wrapper.
  
    I can remember that besides us there were at least two other best-friend units among the girls in our class, as well as a pair of twin sisters who  more or less operated as a best-friend unit.  We were  part of the Twinkie Elite.
       
Me and my grade school Twinkie, Michelle, the last time we saw each other, about 10 1/2 years ago at my mom's 90th birthday. 
Picture
      So anyway, while I was, I suppose, technically at the bottom of the food chain in grade school, I didn't realize it, and so was in a position to feel some sympathy, some rachmones for those kids who I figured were. Or at least I felt it for them on Valentine's Day. 
        In retrospect, I'll bet they all thought getting three Valentine's cards from me was pretty weird.
​       Happy Heart Day, everyone!

Picture
2 Comments
Michelle France
2/16/2021 02:12:44 pm

Patti, I adore you, my Twinkie friend!
I am not one bit surprised you sent three valentines to the shy and awkward kids. That is Soo you and you are sooooo much like your mother. You tend hearts and hearths and I'm so blessed to have spent lots of time in childhood in your heart and at your home. Never stop writing! You continue to make me happy after all these years.

Reply
Patti
2/16/2021 05:10:35 pm

Aw, Michelle, you have always been and continue to be one of the sweetest, kindest, finest people on the planet. I so wish I still had one of my grade-school pictures of you - I can still see clearly in my mind how you looked back then. Beautiful then, and beautiful now! <3

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
     by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
    Picture
    ​"Hail Mary"
    by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
    Picture
    "Tropical Depression" 
    by Patti Liszkay
    ​Buy it on Amazon:   
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPN7NYY

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    RSS Feed

    I am a traveler just visiting this planet and reporting various and sundry observations,
    hopefully of interest to my fellow travelers.

    Categories

    All


























































































  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact