Some Special Days Are Not So Special

(Oklahoma City) Sometimes special days are not so special for me. Sometimes when most people are celebrating a certain special day, I’m not doing much celebrating.

For instance I remember years ago when I was a sophomore in college I had to leave the New Year Eve festivities at home in Reynolds to go to work in north Georgia. I worked the graveyard shift (11PM to 7AM) as an EMT for the ambulance service in a north Georgia county.

I vividly remember looking at my watch when the New Year rolled in (January 1, 1975). I was in the back of an ambulance with a guy having a grand mal epileptic seizure.

Neither the patient nor I was celebrating.

I cannot even remember the number of times when our kids were small and I was putting together Christmas toys and had to leave to go on a death call. I remember thinking that not many people are working on Christmas Eve. If they were working most knew in advance they would be and would get paid extra or get the next holiday off. I worked more than a few Christmas days in my life as well.

For some strange reason, people don’t stop dying because it is a holiday. Most people stop the normal routine of life for a few days for Christmas but the normal routine of death keeps right on clicking.

I remember one Christmas Eve a few years ago I was doing a market analysis in northern West Virginia. I had a new boss at the time and I sure didn’t want to make him mad. I had a flight out of Baltimore late in the afternoon and a winter storm came in. I had almost reconciled to the fact that I would never get out of Baltimore that afternoon and I would spend my Christmas in an airport. I did make it home about 2AM Christmas morning but it was by the skin of my teeth.

One July 4 many years ago I had to leave a golf tournament in which I was playing to go pick up my grandmother who had passed away. She had a real attraction to special days. She was born on Christmas Day, got married on Christmas day and died on July 4th. July 4th holidays have never been very special to me because that experience is forever etched in my mind.

My wife and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary putting up groceries in our new grocery store. That was almost 30 years ago now but I still painfully remember that night. I’m sure my wife had to be thinking what in the world she had gotten herself into in choosing her mate.

I say all that because today is Valentine’s Day. I did get some roses ordered for my wife before I left town today. But I am a long way from home. Tonight while most folks are celebrating this special day with their significant other, I celebrated with a not so significant other.


My friend is divorced and the father of two. He is a great guy but not the person I wanted to have a private Valentine’s Day dinner with tonight. I looked around the restaurant tonight and saw many couples having a nice romantic meal just gazing at each other.

I couldn’t help but wonder what those people thought when they looked around and saw me and my friend. I can tell you that neither of us gazed at each other.

My friend, being single, is always looking for a valentine. If you are female and didn’t have a valentine with you tonight and you are interested in a romantic relationship with my friend, you can send your resume to me.

If you are bold enough you can respond on the comment section of this blog. I will see to it that he gets the message and will do all I can to set you up.

Who knows? Some of you might be interested.

One thing is for certain.

I’m not.