It was 1962 and boy, were we poor: three kids and pancakes every day for dinner. My wife always wanted an electric blanket, but we could not afford one. On Valentine’s Day, I scraped up enough money for a gift. candy or flowers would be nice, but way too impractical. So I bought her the blanket. I put it under other blankets on the bed, but did not tell her.

As the day and evening wore on, she became more and more upset, having received not even a card. and getting into bed was like getting into a freezer. I had placed the controls for both sides of the blanket on my side of the bed. After we had settled for a bit, I turned the heat up on her side of the bed. She said, “I am getting hot.” I said, “oooookkkkk” and turned the heat up more. After more rounds of this, she felt the wires. After some playful and mock anger, we had a very happy Valentine�s night.