My First Valentine

Sunday is Valentine’s Day. I am very lucky in that after many ups and downs, I wound up with a woman who is not only my best friend but someone who I enjoy being around and get to share my life with. She makes all the mistakes I made with the fairer sex all worth it. I am very blessed to be able to spend what will now be our 11^th Valentine’s Day together.

It was a long road that led me to Joyce. I made many mistakes along the way and learned many lessons. Thankfully, when the time came I took those lessons and used them in my relationship with my wife. It has been a great ride. I guess it all started with my first Valentine and my first crush. That was 32 years ago and it started it all.

I was in 3^rd grade. I was 8 years old. It was 1978. I was attending St. Albert’s the Great grade school. This is where I would meet my first valentine, but first a little history. It was the year after my parents got divorced. My brother and I were shuttling between staying at my grandparents house in Burbank and with my Mom who was staying with my Aunt Kathy on Lockwood.

We were enrolled at St. Al’s at the beginning of the school year. At that point in my very young life I had to that point had very little to no interest in girls. I was into playing baseball, riding my bike, and Steve Austin. But my infatuation with the fairer sex all started under the watchful eyes of Mrs. Fitch my 3^rd grade teacher.

Her name was Chrissy. I don’t remember what attracted her to me. I think she sat across from my desk if memory serves and when you are eight that sometimes is all it takes. Whatever the reason I was smitten and I told no one other then my best friend in Mrs. Fitch’s class Renee Alvarez.

Renee and I bonded because he like I was a Cubs fan in a classroom full of White Sox rooters. At recess we hung out together, traded lunches from time to time and occasionally hung out after school. I remember he lived right across the street from the church.

Third grade was also the beginning of what would become a scholastic career of me getting into trouble. I would get sent home with from time to time with an oops slip pinned to my shirt. An oops slip was the equivalent of getting a detention before you were really old enough to get a detention.

Anyway, I digress. At some point during the school year I developed my crush on Chrissy. In logic that only an 8 year old can mange, I was sure she was going to be the future Mrs. Francone. But, while I was smitten I was also scarred shitless of revealing my feelings to her.

I was obviously in my infancy of courting the opposite sex. I spent the school year keeping my secret crush hidden from most of the outside world. Then the calendar moved to February and it hit me. I would have one big chance to show her how I felt, Valentine’s Day. If I didn’t step up to the plate on the 14^th I never would.

But how exactly could I get that point across? I had no idea. Then one day smack dab in the aisles of our local Jewel – Osco, like a bolt of lightning it hit me. I would buy Chrissy a dish of candy hearts and give it to her on Valentine’s Day. That would be sure to win her over.

Now being eight, I had no money on me of course. So, I had to talk my rather frugal grandmother into purchasing this item for me. She asked me what it was for. This story takes place 32 years ago so my memory is hazy at certain details. All I do remember is having to do a song and a dance to get her to buy the item. But buy it she did.

I had the candy dish. On the fateful morning, I got ready and put it in my school bag with my books. But then of course it hit me, when exactly would I give Chrissy the candy dish that I was sure was going to show her how I felt? I had two options as I saw it, recess or wait until after school. I weighed the pros and cons and figured I would give it to her after school, this way I could flee the scene quickly.

I remember the day just dragging. The whole time I was in school I was trying to stir up as much eight year old courage as I could to actually go through with my plan. I was sweating bullets. I had no idea if I could actually go through with it and actually hand her my Valentine. The ordeal was eating me up inside as the day dragged.

Finally the school day was over. It was do or die time. I grabbed the candy dish from under my desk and followed Chrissy outside. To be honest with you, until the very second I handed it to her I wasn’t sure I could go through with it. But, somehow I mustered up the onions to go for it. I called out her name, handed her the candy dish and told her Happy Valentine’s Day. Everything after that is a blur. I don’t remember her reaction, if she smiled what she said, nothing. I had worked myself up into such a mental state that once I actually went through with giving her the valentine I must have blacked the rest out.

The rest of the school year went on and my 3^rd grade infatuation like all 3^rd grade infatuations at some point ended. Being as we were both eight years old, shy, and in Catholic school not much became of my gesture. Then recently thanks to Facebook I caught up with Chrissy and she remembered the incident. She told me that for years she has been re-telling the story of how she got her first valentine from Nick Francone. Knowing that the eight year old boy inside me is proud and smiling.