Flowers, cookies and outer space: A late Valentine’s story

On the day before Valentine’s Day, I found myself perusing the flower selection at an area store. As you can imagine I was not the only one and the stock had been well picked over.           

Hear me out before you accuse me of being ill-prepared for the Hallmark holiday geared toward romantics. I can work wonders with the leftovers of the floral department. I have a natural talent for, and a little bit of training, in floral design. 

In fact, my wife and I met in a floral arrangement class in high school. As an active member of the National FFA back then, I took every agriculture course offered in school. The classes were 75 percent goofing off and were guaranteed padding for the ol’ grade-point average. To think I almost dropped the class because I was embarrassed to be in it. But a friend of mine advised against it because the room was full of girls. 

Wiser counsel had never been given. 

Thus, in the tradition of my relationship, I select, cut and vase flowers myself for special occasions. I’ve saved a lot of money that way, and it is a constant reminder of days gone by. So, there I was my son in tow, looking through the rummaged-through rose selection, searching for something to transform into a loving gesture. Of course, I found straw to turn into gold. 

However, you can never make it out of a store only buying what you came in for, and we walked around. Soon, my only man-child was filling me in on the release of a new flavor of Oreo cookie, the “Space Dunk,” which he had read about extensively. The confection features the classic chocolate cookie, imprinted with outer space-themed images, sandwiching blue and red-tinted marshmallow crème. 

We found every imaginable flavor on the cookie aisle except Space Dunk. A vendor was there unpacking cases of Oreos and overheard our conversation. She explained that the Space Dunks had flown off the shelves and were long gone. 

The cookie release has been hyped by a multi-platform marketing campaign from print to social media, revealing that advertising (especially to children) still works. The product also comes along with a chance to win a four-hour trip to outer space, or at least close to it. One lucky soul will get to fly to the free-from-the-grips-of-gravity part of the stratosphere for the specific purpose of dunking an Oreo into milk. 

My son wants to be that lucky soul. I’m a little surprised. Sometimes, I can barely get him to leave the house. But I don’t always offer cookies and milk. 

Short of looking up at the stars on a clear night, outer space has never had much appeal to me. I’ve grown used to the noise and commotion of Earth, plus all my stuff is here. And I’d have to get flowers delivered. You already know I don’t like to do that.

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