Well for my first 24 years I wasn’t much on Valentines Day, but it took on a special meaning after I proposed to Anne and she said yes to my delight. Before I had proposed I had signed a contract to go to Australia on a pipeline job. Anne was teaching school and we both were committed for several months before we could get married. We had plans for Anne to fly to Australia and we would get married in Australia and we could have a honeymoon cruise home when my contract ended, which was close to the time she finished her contract year teaching. I went to Australia and went to welding on a pipeline and writing letters to Anne. I would do some illustrations with my watercolors on the letters and envelopes and mail them home to her. I never heard from her, but that didn’t surprise me too much. I had been in the service and in the South Pacific for 3 years and was used to slow mail service. The slow mail service would have speeded up a bunch if I had Air-Mailed them instead of sending ground by slow boat. I didn’t get any mail because she didn’t get any mail either and she didn’t have any address to send me any letters. It took a month for a letter to get to the US from Australia by boat. By this time It was nearly Valentines Day. A couple days before Valentine Day I ordered a dozen long stem Red Roses to be delivered to Anne in her home in Odessa, Texas. Via a Florist in Australia. The Roses got to Anne on Valentines Day and Anne opened them and inside was a card that said Love Mike. This was the first time Anne had heard from me since I left more than a month ago. She had just about decided I was just a cowboy who rode off.
I got finished with the pipeline job early and I flew home before Anne got out of school. We got married and I have tried to make her a Valentines Card every year since then. I have fallen short by many years, but this year I have been inspired by watching the Common Ravens who live in our neighborhood. The Ravens mate for life and you seldom see them very far apart. During the nesting season you will see them very close to the nest, and they are busy raising the young ravens. After the young ravens leave the nest, the old ravens are back together again, enjoying life and being together.
Happy Valentine’s Day