February blues are source of couple’s dinner-party spat
This is the low season of the year, when people’s moods and marriages are most vulnerable, when resistance is on a par with 2:30 a.m. Read this letter:
Two days ago, I’d have called anyone “insane” who said my husband and I would quarrel as we did after a party given for business associates. Up to two hours before we said all these terrible things, our life was ideal.
I hadn’t been too keen on going to a formal affair, but I’d bought a new dress and charged it. It looked good on me, and even my husband said I was a “knockout.”
There was such a crowd I didn’t notice the other woman with a dress like it, same color and everything, until we lined up for refreshments.
You know how it is when two women take a lot of trouble to buy new clothes for a special affair, then find themselves like two peas in a pod. The morale goes down like balloons popping.
This woman was the wife of one of my husband’s big customers, and the look she gave almost froze me. Then about 1:30, my husband left a group of men, pounced on this woman who had her back turned to him and said in his most carrying voice, “Come on, Sweet, let’s get out of here!”
I knew he thought it was me, but the customer’s wife froze like a store dummy and gave him an icy stare. People tittered, and I was so uncomfortable! In the car, I said, “I’ll never wear that dress again, even if it isn’t paid for, and cost $65.”
My husband almost drove us into a snowbank.
“You did what?” he exploded. “Do you know what you’ve done? I’ve undoubtedly lost a sale I’d figured on to get out of the income tax hole, and you’ve put me in debt $65 more for a dress you won’t wear again!”
I won’t report the rest; it would burn up the Green Sheet! But our perfect marriage will never be the same again! — That Dress!
That Dress: Don’t be so downhearted! The sun will rise again! Spring will come even after a tough winter! And the morale that went down when physical and emotional vitality were at the lowest February ebb will go up again!
You both said some mighty unpleasant things when your resistance was low after 1:30 a.m. on a February morning, but they needn’t be marriage-shattering.
Keep in mind that no marriage is perfect, no husband or wife is perfect, that tensions often rise when resistance is down.
Greet your husband with a great big smile and hug him, with determination to be a helpful partner. But no more postmortems!
He’ll be as glad as you are to make up. — I.Q.G.