Do you believe in a practical joke being providentially used to bring two people together? Well I do. As we celebrate this valentines day I would like to share the story of my mother and father who became friends due to a misdirected valentine and were married for nearly 52 years before my mother passed away in 2001 and my father passed away in 2005.
Mom and dad lived in rural Oklahoma and actually attended the same small town high-school. Although there was less than one year age difference mom was 2-3 years ahead of dad in high school. In the late 1930s older boys were required to help on the farm during harvest and planting time so they frequently graduated high school later than the girls of the same age. Dad did not make much of an impression on mom in High School. Since they lived on farms on opposite sides of town, they never had contact outside of school time.
Mom never had a boy friend and neither did dad have a girl friend during their high school days. After graduation dad left to work for farmers wherever he could find work. Mom stayed at home and helped her widowed mother, taught Sunday School in the church, and did other things. Sometime after graduation she went to California to live with her older sister and to find work in California. By this time dad was working for a farmer near Abilene, Kansas.
On Valentines day, mom mailed valentines back to the children in her Sunday School class. One of the boys in her class had the same name as my father. My father's address was a different route number but the same town. When the card arrived the two mail carriers who both new my father decided they would play a practical joke on my dad and send this boys valentine to my dad's address. I'm sure today they would be in prison or such for intentionally misdirecting mail as a practical joke. The valentine went to the Miller's farm and my dad's brothers when they received it, mailed it on to where dad was working in Kansas with a note attached, "Are you going to get a Kansan or Californian". That misdirected valentine with the picture of a pineapple and hearts with the caption, "I'm sweet on you" was the beginning of a life long relationship. My mother carried this valentine forever in her purse but when she died the valentine was missing.
Their relationship was mostly by mail and I believe maybe the 3rd or 4th time they actually met face to face they were married. Dad and mom told me that they only had one real date prior to marriage. They went to see the Stamps Quartet. Dad said he spent 25 cents on his only date with mom. (10 cents for admission for two to the Stamps Quartet and 15 cents for two hamburgers and a coke). That was the day when a nickel was worth something.
Happy Valentines Day and may you be blessed on this day.
