Yeah, I am. I debated just flirting with him, but since WCSO only pays their officers once a month, I figured that would take far too long!
I've been working on recounting another Valentine story which was told to me (both his and her versions) repeatedly while growing up. It is major long but might be of interest to local history buffs:
My mom first came to Point Washington in 1937. Her stepfather, Donald Cameron, was the captain of one of the dredgeboats that dug the Intracoastal Waterway. Pretty much everyone arrived in Point Washington via ferry at that time. My mom, my Aunt Jonnye, and their parents rented a room from W.H. & Katie Wesley. (This room later became the "blue bedroom" at Eden...but I digress...)
Mom started school in the one-room schoolhouse that used to be across from the cemetery. She had been born in Mississippi and had been drug all over the eastern U.S. with the dredge crew, but she had never been in such a place. She was in 11th grade and incensed that shorthand, typing, and the other business skills she had been learning in Michigan were not offered in Point Washington. My dad was in the 12th grade and later remarked that his first thought was "I wish than d@mn redhead would shut up!"
Slowly, though, Mom noticed that young Dickie Saltsman, who was the grand-nephew of her landlords, was paying quite a bit of attention to her. He would perform impressive feats for her, such as pretending to be able to tell if it was time for the ferry by smelling his armpits.
He began walking her home after school, and often his mother would invite her family for supper. His sisters, Ollie Sue, Peggy, & Joanne would constantly embarrass Dickie by saying "Dickie & Loraine, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g" and anything else they could do to pick on him. He would just brush them off and look down at his plate.
Then the unthinkable happened...Mom's stepfather was being transferred to a job near Tampa. Sadly, they packed up and moved again. Mom had left boyfriends everywhere she lived, so this wasn't too new to her, but she really wished they could just settle down. Meanwhile, Dickie was heartbroken, and as this was before e-mail, telephones, etc, he was devastated that he would never see her again. After grappling with his feelings and his heartache for several weeks, he wrote a letter to her, telling her what she meant to him and that he would love her as long as he lived. He mailed it to her, in care of the dredge company, Tampa, Florida.
A couple of weeks after that, the dredge company decided it was time to begin preparing the 331 causeway in preparation for building the drawbridge across Choctawhatchee Bay. As he was familiar with the area, Daddy Don's crew was selected for the job. Dickie?s little sister, Joanne, was at her grandparents store at the end of 395 when Mom and her family stepped off the ferry. Dickie heard Joanne scream from end of the road ?LORAINE?S BACK!!!? However, being mortified that he had poured out his heart to her, Dickie?s response was to run into the woods and hide.
I do not know how long he stayed in the woods before Mom found him. Fortunately for me, they began dating in earnest. Mom?s family moved twice more, but the telegrams flew back and forth. Daddy Don was transferred to the Panama Canal Zone, and his sister in Tampa agreed that Mom and Jonnye could stay with her. My grandmother, Mama Mel, had married for the first time at 15 and later realized that was far too young, so she left Mom with stern instructions that she had better not get any ideas about getting married before she was 20 years old.
Mom turned 20 on May 6, 1941. She married Dickie Saltsman in the front yard of his mother?s house, which still stands on Hwy 395, on June 15, 1941. They were married 43 years before Daddy passed away in 1984. She joined him again in 1991, nine days after what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary (and, sadly, one day after my first wedding anniversary). They currently reside in Heaven; but I visit them in the Point Washington Cemetery?and also when I look out my front door to see the view they enjoyed for so many years.
If I get a scanner that works, I'll post their wedding picture -
