Genealogy Forum NEWS
February, 1999
Valentine Memories
My Valentine Is Told
Submitted by GFS Ed@AOL.com
Arms to fold
Arms to hold
Tender touch
Loved so-much
My Valentine - Is told.
Like a rose
Petals so soft
Beauty in bloom
Our passion looms
My Valentine - Is told.
Rainbow sky
Love in our eyes
Grateful hearts
Will never part
My Valentine - Is told.
Sickness or health
Never just self
Always together
Love forever
My Valentine - Is told.
Through the years
Beyond our tears
Our souls entwine
Be Mine
My Valentine - Is told.
©The Eagle of Millerton - 21 January 1998
Dedicated to the love of my life - My Wife
by: Ed Mentz, Sr.
Using Valentine's (and other cards) to Find Family Ties
Submitted by GFS Jill@AOL.com
My mother has two scrapbooks full of postcards that belonged to her mother and grandmother. Many are from the teens and early 1920s when my great-grandmother's relatives in Scotland sent their young American grandchildren, nieces, or cousins (my grandmother and her sisters) cute and clever little greetings by post. Some of them are even photograph postal cards that were sent in an envelope or just by themselves with a postmark on the front. (A certain photography studio in Leith, Edinburgh was doing good business! ;)
Some of these cards are Valentine greetings and they really did use expressions in the '20's like "you're the cat's pajamas!" The sentiments are short and sweet and some of the cards are still in good shape. (The scrapbooks are falling apart though.) It's fun going through them trying to figure out who was who, asking my mother about these people. The dates are still legible, as are most of the signatures and addresses.
Even old Valentine's cards can be used to find cousin connections. One of my projects this year is to try to locate descendants of my great-grandfather's sister who married and settled in Massachusetts before 1915. (Her maiden name was LAMOND and she married a PATTERSON. They had at least two sons.) From the postcards she sent my grandmother we know where she and her family went on holiday and other little details about her life at that time. I recently went searching through the SSDI and online whitepages (Switchboard) for Pattersons in MA with the desired first names. If anyone else has any suggestions, be sure to let me know. I'll let our readers know in a few months if I find anything! ;)
(It is interesting to note that on my maternal grandmother's side there were several septs of the Lamont clan who married into the family:
Pat(t)erson, Blakely, and Luckey are three that I'm aware of.)
The first Valentine's Day
Submitted by GFSLadyJay@AOL.com
The first Valentine's Day that I truly remember is the first one that my hubby and I were together!!!! I received that day One Dozen Red Roses...they were my first ever!!!! Hee Hee and I think that is what won me overshhh but don't tell !!!!!!
They were the most beautiful sight I had ever seen...I have received many flowers from him since but that dozen of Red Long stem Roses will always be the ones that I remember......oh and by the way about two weeks later he proposed to me !!!
After them flowers I just couldn't say no....and I am here to say that I have not regretted that word Yes since...it has now been 22 yrs. Seems like yesterday!!!
First Love
They say you always remember your "first love". Well, I certainly do. He lived just across the street from me and I just adored him from afar that whole school year when we were in the 4th grade. Then on Valentine's Day, lucky me got to stay home with the chicken pox, but my mom went to school and brought home my Valentine box for me (remember those boxes we used to have to decorate and then everyone put a card in each box?). I can still remember the Valentine he gave me. On the front, a cute little farmer boy, standing in front of a wagon full of melons, and holding one. The card said, "Honey-dew you love me?". On the back, he had written, "Well, do you? Will you go with me?" I was thrilled. And "go together" we did, for more than 4 years. He sent me my first boy/girl Valentine when we were 10 years old, he took me on my first "date" to the movies when we were 12, and gave me my first kiss on my 13th birthday.
Submitted by GFS Rip@AOL.com
And one of the best things about him? We are still friends and exchange cards at Christmas time and he NEVER once has forgotten to send me a card or call me for my birthday in 40 years.
The Date
Last year, while I was researching, my sister gave me this note from my Dad to my Mom asking her out on a date. She said that our mother had given this to her several years before her death, and had said that it was the first note that she (my mom) had ever received from my dad. Now .... it is not much of a love note, but it does show that my dad was too shy to ask my mom out directly. And, that as now, a guy's version of a date hasn't changed much ... a football game and a movie.
Submitted by GFS Eddie@AOL.com
The Note:
Dear,
I would be very glad to go to the football game with you. Please give Fred a note with your address on it and what time you want me to call for you at the house.
Really after Saturday nite I didn't expect to hear from you but I'm very glad you remembered me. This also includes the movie Fri.
Always yours.
C "Edward" A
My Precious Valentine
Submitted by GFSAcadian@AOL.com
Dateline: Singing River Hospital
Feb 12, 1962
The patient had been in labor since early morning. The baby was ONLY 3 weeks late and the Grandma's paced the floor with the anxious father-to-be. Back and forth, back and forth. The weary Mom-to-be had been told to walk and walk and labor would progress. She wondered if THEY would like to try walking themselves when pain was centered in her lower back, and each step felt like a ton of bricks pressing down on her spine and a mile long?
Feb. 13, 1962
Walk. Walk. Lay down. Rest. Get up, walk to waiting room and visit family. Walk. Walk. Sheesh. This was getting old! The hours dragged by, the family slept in chairs, nobody dared leave the hospital because the Doctor and nurses reports were, "Anytime now. She is progressing nicely." She wonders today why they lied when progress was NOT being made?
Feb. 14, 1962
The mother-to-be could no longer walk, or get up out of bed. She signed her Valentine card to her husband of less than two years and had the nurse bring it to him. She got one in return from him and cards from her two Mom's who had kept the vigil faithfully. That afternoon the Doctor finally confessed to the patient that if the baby didn't come by 8:00 PM CT, there would be surgery performed to get the "Angel" out and into the world. The story he told the waiting family was different, but at 8:00pm, the patient was removed to the operating room. She got Valentine kisses from her folks and husband as they rolled her bed through doors and down hallways.
Feb 14, 1962
9:11 PM CT
At last! Penny Ann was delivered via surgery weighing 9 pounds and 11 ounces on Feb 14, 1962 after 69 hours of labor. Ahhhhhh! The Angel had arrived after 9 months and 21 days.
Happy Valentine's Day, Penny and Happy Birthday to both of us.
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