Happy Valentine’s Day to you! If you were hoping to read a sweet and sappy love story today, please accept my apologies as I have a different sort of Valentine’s Day story on tap.
First though, a Christmas story, or rather an image from A Christmas Story, specifically the scene where Ralphie is forced to eat soap:
I realize that this scene might surprise or confuse today’s young people who might not be familiar with the practice of punishing the use of coarse language in children by washing their mouths out with soap, but I can assure you that what is considered child abuse by today’s standards was still an acceptable and widely used disciplinary measure when I was growing up in the 1980s.
So, wait does this mean my mom was swearing on Valentine’s Day, and like poor Ralphie needed to be punished with a mouthful of soap? Actually, it was nothing of the sort. This is a Valentine’s Day story after all. It is a story of love, just not a sappy one, in this case it’s a story of a mother’s love for her child.
This all happened one February in the 1980s. My sister and I had just come from our Sunday School classes and my parents had just come from church. Since it was close to Valentine’s Day my sister’s Sunday School teacher had given each of the kids a little goodie bag with a card and some treats inside including a red heart that looked a lot like the hearts in the picture below:
There was some confusion in my family about what exactly the red heart was. Candy is a traditional Valentine’s Day treat, but it was not entirely clear whether or not the bright red heart was actually candy, because it looked a lot like soap.
I should point out that this was a time in history when little guest soaps in fun shapes and pretty colors were popular. Both of my grandmothers had little bowls of these soaps in their bathrooms. To be clear, these were strictly decorative soaps. You were never supposed to actually use these soaps, just admire their beauty while you washed your hands with some much less attractive bar of soap.
Was this pretty red heart in my sister’s goodie bag soap or was it candy? Well, there was one very easy way to figure this out. Take a bite out of it, and see. But who would should be the one to take this great risk? Well, my dad, myself and my sister, nominated my mom.
My mom’s a pretty amazing woman, and she is the sort of person who would do anything for her children. How do I know this? Well, on that February day all those years ago, Mom bravely nibbled on that mystery heart.
Lucky for Mom, that little heart-shaped soap turned out to be white (well in this case red) chocolate. I realize there are some chocolate lovers out there who would argue that eating white chocolate is not much better than eating soap, but trust me and Ralphie on this, white chocolate is way, way tastier than soap.
I hope today all your treats turn out to be candy and not soap, and that you have a sweet Valentine’s Day!
— Alissa
Weekly Inspiration
What I’m Reading: Places I Can’t Return To by Sean Bair-Flannery
What I’m Watching: The Superbowl
What I’m Listening to: “This Life” by Vampire Weekend
Find out more about my books at alissagrosso.com
Find out more about my digital art at alissacarin.com
My apologies for the typos and such this post is almost certainly riddled with.
I can't help thinking the mystery could've been solved by just .... smelling it?
But I am glad your mom's bravery was rewarded by the taste of candy, not soap!
Reminds me of the time as a kid that I got curious about things in the spice drawer and ate a teaspoon of alum. I puckered so much that I thought my face would never return to normal. Happy Valentines Day.