It was Valentine’s Day 1976 and I received two anonymous Valentine’s cards. I can still remember my excitement. The cards and envelopes were scrutinized as deeply as a Forensic Files crime. If it was in 2022, I would have extracted the DNA from the saliva on the envelope… Shortly after I received the cards, two boys in our ‘Glee Club’ asked me out and then I was convinced who sent which one. But was I correct in my analysis?
I was so mortified by the Dragon card and the pink ‘tail’. At 15 years old, I understood the implication but I was horribly naïve despite a clinical Roman Catholic health education which, as intended, put me off everything sexual. Thank goodness Nana had passed away the previous year. She would have declared it vulgar and made me wear a Burka to school. Our uniform, which included regulation American tan tights with white knee socks on top, should have been enough to tamp down the boys’ lust! My mum laughed out loud but I could see that she was thinking, “who sent that?”
The Tiger card was so different – sweet, beguiling and innocent. The sentiment was delightful and the sender knew I loved all kinds of kitty cats. The true love of my life was Tibby, my first cat. I talked about her so much in school, that at our 25-year school reunion, old school mates asked me how she was? She crossed to the rainbow bridge many years before.
Kerry, idyllically happy with textbook and sleepy Tibby
Of the two suitors, only one appealed to me. V was an exotic half breed like me. He was half Italian/half Scottish with black hair and pale blue eyes. At the time I thought I was half Spanish/half Irish but I turned out to be a Heinz variety. The other boy, W, was averagely handsome with a vague resemblance to Starsky of Starsky and Hutch fame but there was zero attraction from my end. With that in mind, I determined that V. had sent the tiger card as he was a soft spoken, kind natured boy (liked by all mothers). By process of elimination, that meant W. had sent the ribald Dragon card. I turned him down and went out with V.
My short courtship with V. started so well. He smelled so good and seemed interested in going further than first base but we didn’t. We sat for hours listening to Tangerine Dream. His mother did not like me. I can’t think of any reason for her to feel like that but I suspect she felt very uncomfortable with her oldest son, aged 16, having lustful thoughts for the pretty senorita. She was lucky that Nana is always in my head or we might have got to second base…
After a few weeks, I was bored and dumped poor V. by kissing another Glee Club member in front of him. My girl friends castigated me and I remember them comforting V. who was crying in the kitchen. I didn’t even feel an ounce of regret – hormones make you behave terribly and I was only 15. Later I went out with another Glee Club Member, M. I dumped him on a boat halfway to an island on a school trip. He spent the rest of the trip miserable. What a heartless floozy I was… 😊
Much later I discovered there were some other boys who had a wee crush on me, so perhaps the senders are still anonymous. Maybe sweet V. send the rude one – I could still extract the DNA… I hope you have a HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!!
Postcards from Kerry 