The Valentine’s Day #1 Dad hat was a success, I have to say. It was built on top of the only cap that has every really fit my tremendous noggin, so I’m not sure what the long term viability of this gift is. It’ll be fun while it lasts. The stove-pipish container of Russell Stover’s candy is now empty though. How long do you expect four pieces of chocolate to hang around this house?
Russell Stover’s reminds me of my grandmother, because they are classy like that. She was allergic to chocolate, which I imagined must be as terrible as permanently having the chicken pox, but she seemed to be a good sport about it. Every Christmas she received a box of chocolate from a friend and we had to eat it all for her. In retrospect, I think it is entirely possible that she bought herself chocolate in order to watch us eat it. She was sweet like that.
I think the box of chocolate was normally a Whitman’s Sampler not Russell Stover’s but whatever. She was still classy and sweet. When I graduated from college, she and her brother — both octogenarians at the time — were seated beside each other at the apres commencement lunch. When my great uncle ordered sweet tea, my grandmother called him a “sissy.” Even when she forgot who everybody was, she was always glad to see you. Nice lady.