Valentine's Day in the 1960s - the romance of the stereotypical "boy gets girl" film.

Ah, romance in the 1960s.

The truth: probably my Mom was thrilled when dad brought her a box of Fannie May chocolates.  Simple things like chocolate made my Mom exquisitely happy.  Or dad would pick up a little bottle of perfume to go with that chocolate, like Tabu or Tuvache (I recall the Tabu bottle, a rosy-peach color, the texture of which reminded me of rubber, which is very odd for a perfume bottle).

And then my Mom made Dad one of his favorite dinners, or since it was a special day, she may have even rolled up her sleeves and delved into one of her Polish or Czechoslovakian cookbooks for inspiration and whipped up something really great, like peach dumplings (which quite often had the dough separate from the peaches, but no one cared because they were so tasty), or stuffed cabbage.  If she made time, maybe svickova, which is marinated beef (who am I kidding?  That would MAYBE be for Christmas, as it involved pickling beef and was very time consuming and smelly and Mom had to find the ceramic pickling container and the onions made her eyes tear and, really, how is THAT romantic? ...)

The real truth?  At least by the time I was able to recall (say, late 60s), there wasn't too much romance going on in the Turlow house.  There was warmth and love.  But not too much of the sexiness - at least to the eyes of a small child.

Which is probably why when I think of romance in the 60s, I fall in with the fantasy version of it.   Of Doris Day and Rock Hudson and "Pillow Talk" and Tony Randall as the nervy-nerdy sidekick and quick quips and handsome rogues who always get the hard-to-get girl.

Frankly, I'm obsessed with this film genre.  Recently, Ben and I started recording films after doing DVR searches for the aforementioned actors, plus Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine.  And, oh, the treasures we found!  Like Jack and Shirley in "The Apartment" (which was the source material for the cat and mouse, boy gets girl antics found in the musical, "Promises, Promises").  "The Glass Bottom Boat" and "Send Me No Flowers", both starring the ultra perky Ms. Day.  And let's not forget "Boys' Night Out", starring Randall as a man who's looking for "something on the side" and Kim Novak (who went to high school with my mom, if you'd like to know!) as the girl he and his cronies aim to romance - until she finally gets the best of them, that minx!

A few years back, the film "Down With Love" perfectly captured the iconic style of the 60s rom-com and with that, I give you today's link and message for the day, this 14th of February. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izt6sT9aJUU

Happy Valentine's Day!