{"id":1318170,"date":"2020-02-10T19:24:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T02:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/purcell-column-how-to-renew-the-dying-art-of-romance-ask-our-elders\/"},"modified":"2020-02-10T19:24:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T02:24:01","slug":"purcell-column-how-to-renew-the-dying-art-of-romance-ask-our-elders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/purcell-column-how-to-renew-the-dying-art-of-romance-ask-our-elders\/","title":{"rendered":"Purcell column: How to renew the dying art of romance? Ask our elders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The day my Mother and Father met, he was arguing with some high school friends about whether a slice of lemon would corrode the coating on a porcelain sink.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never came across any man quite like your Father,\u201d my Mother says, still happily befuddled by the stubborn old fellow.<\/p>\n

Their meeting in 1950 began a storybook courtship. A typical date included my Father walking one mile to my Mother\u2019s home. The two walked another mile to the movie theater. They had just enough money left over to buy an Isaly\u2019s banana split. Then my Dad walked her home.<\/p>\n

Their courtship culminated in their marriage in 1956. They\u2019ll celebrate their 64th anniversary in September.<\/p>\n

I share their story because I wonder how today\u2019s young people may one day answer when their children ask, \u201cHow did you meet Daddy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Will Mommy reply, \u201cHe texted me, we hooked up, we did likewise with several other people for a while and then, tired of the jealousy, we decided, \u2018Why don\u2019t we have the magistrate draw up some paperwork and make this thing legal?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fascinating how much courting and romance have changed in just a few generations. Older generations were brimming with hope and optimism going into marriage. Now, younger generations brim with cynicism and low expectations.<\/p>\n

My parents were married in the Catholic Church. They vowed to \u201cbecome one flesh\u201d under God \u2026 to have and to hold, from their wedding day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do them part.<\/p>\n

They began their life together with hope and promise. Compare that to younger people who enter marriage thinking, \u201cWell, if it doesn\u2019t work out, I can always try something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consider the love songs sung by crooners through the early 1970s.<\/p>\n

Whereas many of today\u2019s hit songs celebrate fear, anger and cynicism (\u201cHe cheated on me!\u201d), Dean Martin\u2019s songs celebrated sweetness and innocence. Idealistic and uplifting, his songs were ROMANTIC.<\/p>\n

Dino\u2019s songs celebrated the subtle dance of the spirit between a man and a woman \u2014 the magic that occurs when two complementary natures collide.<\/p>\n

His songs celebrated mystery \u2014 the deep interest and curiosity that men and women hold for each other.<\/p>\n

The simple, intense lyrics of his song \u201cSway\u201d summed this up well:<\/p>\n

Other dancers may be on the floor<\/p>\n

Dear, but my eyes will see only you<\/p>\n

Only you have the magic technique<\/p>\n

When we sway, I go weak<\/p>\n

Were my parents, as two young people, unrealistic entering their lifelong union? Perhaps. They\u2019ve gone through many ups and downs since, as all married couples do, yet they\u2019re still together \u2014 and my Father still adores my Mother.<\/p>\n

Were the love songs of the past also unrealistic and overly simplified, like a trite romance novel? Yes.<\/p>\n

Was this a bad thing? Of course not. We\u2019ve always needed romance in our lives.<\/p>\n

Romance is about hopefulness \u2014 the hope that one day, a special person will enter your life, sweep you off your feet, become your best friend and give you far more care, affection and support than he or she would ever want in return.<\/p>\n

This Valentine\u2019s Day, younger folks might want to ask their elders to help them understand \u2014 and renew \u2014 the wonderful art of romance.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2020 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, author of \u201cMisadventures of a 1970\u2019s Childhood,\u201d a humorous memoir available at amazon.com, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. For info on using this column in your publication or website, contact Sales@cagle.com<\/a> or call (805) 969-2829. Send comments to Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The day my Mother and Father met, he was arguing with some high school friends about whether a slice of lemon would corrode the coating on a porcelain sink. \u201cI never came across any man quite like your Father,\u201d my Mother says, still happily befuddled by the stubborn old fellow. Their meeting in 1950 began […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1318170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-05 22:52:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}