Roses and chocolates for Valentine’s Day? Bah! Humbug!
No wonder that, as the intrepid reporter who put this piece together came to ask folks on the street about their Val Day’s memories, many started looking for the exits. Sentimentality and commercialism alone just don’t make a magic match.
Besides, Russia and Ukraine are at war. Bad for Ukrainian flower production; good for India, though, which expects to double export sales of roses this year.
But we digress. The question posed to Virgin Islanders, friends and neighbors this year was not about the usual, but the unusual offerings that make hearts grow fond on Feb. 14.
Here’s what we found:
For many, there was nothing special or memorable from Valentine’s Days past and present. Some had never received any gifts. One man called the whole thing unfair; men spend, they give, yet what do they get, he asked.
From former Sen. Janette Millin-Young, a ho-hum. “Don’t think any of my gifts would fall into the category of unusual,” she said, “but Happy Valentine’s Day.”
Paige Cope, busy mom on the St. John ferry, smiled briefly while entertaining a fidgety toddler. “Nothing unusual! A nice dinner and chocolates are always nice,” she said.
Port Authority Chief of Staff Julice Harley shared her special memory while waiting to board in Cruz Bay. “Well, I got an engagement ring on Valentine’s Day,” she said.
Jackie Gurlas stood in line by Provisions Bakery in Love City and thought for a moment. “Aside from toys and candy I got from my mom, it wasn’t a big deal. But I remember in fifth grade, I asked a friend what she got. She said a horse,” Gurlas said. “I asked myself, if she got a horse for Valentine’s Day, what would she get for Christmas?”
Waste Management Authority communications director Lorna Nichols-Minkoff was way ahead of her time, celebrating Galentine’s Day (queue Beyonce: Single Ladies) by flying to Paris with family and friends to take in a show at the Moulin Rouge.
Pragmatic restaurant manager and gallery owner Aubrey Burgess said his most memorable Feb. 14 gift came from creativity. “I was on campus in Puerto Rico and my then-partner, Katie, made a clipboard collage for me, ‘for my organizational potential’,” he said. “They were all memorable, as it’s my father’s birthday.”
And public school physical education teacher Joyce Whitaker took a walk down memory lane for her best Val Day moment. “It’s not what I got, but what I did. My husband gave me my first orchid. And that started a chain of events where we raised orchids together for many years,” she said.
Since then, Whitaker said, her husband passed away and Hurricane Irma went with the orchids. But the memories, and her smile, remain.
Sweet memories are also a gift for Christine Garrett-Davis, whose husband, former Kean High Assistant Principal and Zulu Troupe warrior, Lueben Davis, died July 10.
Memories, she said, and a poem:
Leuben’s Poem
I’m bits & pieces scattered here and there;
That comes together when you are near.
I follow you so I can say that
I love you too.
