I can’t quite remember where everyone else went that night – ice skating? a slumber party? the mall? What I do remember is that on the night of my eighth grade Valentine’s dance, a bunch of my classmates had a scheduling conflict and chose to attend the not-a-dance. I don’t recall where they went or why I didn’t go with them. But I do remember the dance.
I remember going with my friend Chrissy; I probably spent the night at her house afterwards. And I remember Garth Brooks – a given in a small rural town in the 90s. But the two most important things I remember about that night are close dancing with a boy and winning a giant Hershey’s KISS.
Are you surprised by this? That dancing and eating hold equally important places in my junior high memories? Right.
Because most of the other girls in my class weren’t at the dance, that meant the boy I liked had to resort to the second string for his dance partners. Now, don’t worry, I didn’t see myself as second string. I knew full and well that I’d been his friend well before he lost his geeky glasses and braces. I liked him before he got all cute and everything. Obviously I was the clear choice for his love of a lifetime [cue the Firehouse now, please]. Sadly, he didn’t see it that way.
But that didn’t matter. Because on that fateful night, the other girls weren’t there and I was. Luckily my school dances didn’t include chaperones monitoring our personal space with rulers or balloons. So I got to middle school slow dance (you know, hugging in rhythm) all night long.
It was very romantic, and I’m pretty sure we looked something like this:
[Side note: Did you know that Boy Meets World is coming back? DID YOU KNOW?]
As you may have seen coming, our love connection didn’t last to Monday morning, and that crush just became one more in a line of cute boys who liked me as a friend. You know what else didn’t last long? THE GIANT HERSHEY’S KISS I WON IN A RAFFLE AT THE DANCE.
I have no idea what the other prizes were that night, but I remember feeling like I won the middle school dance jackpot when they announced my name and I laid eyes on that ginormous piece of chocolate goodness. I hid that puppy in my room when I got home and, bite by bite, I ate it like a champ that weekend. A lovesick champ on a sugar high, sure. But a champ.
I’m pretty sure if I pulled out my diary from that angsty season of life, we’d find that I journaled about the boy and the chocolate with equal amounts of intensity. I love the chocolate, and a giant kiss – well, let’s just say it was a decent consolation for the other kind of kiss I did NOT win that night.
I still love Hershey’s KISSES [and I haven’t seen that boy since the summer after we graduated high school]. As a matter of fact, I’m headed to the grocery store as soon as I finish this post to buy some Hershey’s KISSES for Valentine bags we’re giving to Annalyn’s teachers.
But, more exciting for you (yes, even more exciting than reading about my middle school memories!), are the FOUR BAGS of Hershey’s KISSES I’m giving away this week. That means four lucky readers will win a bag of chocolates – and nobody will judge you if you want to hide it in your room and/or eat them all in one weekend. Happy Valentine’s Day TO YOU!!
Check out this infographic and then check out the giveaway details below.
To enter the giveaway for a bag of Hershey’s KISSES, leave a comment telling us about your favorite or sweetest memory involving Hershey’s KISSES. This giveaway will close at midnight (CST) next Monday, February 18.
This post is sponsored by The Motherhood and Hershey. Yes, I was compensated partly in chocolate. All opinions, however, are my own – including those about country music, teenage crushes, raffles and preschool teacher gifts.
[Side note #2: Does anyone else watch Cougar Town? Did you catch it the other week when Courtney Cox’s character mentioned “Dancing in the Dark” as her favorite song? You know, the song whose video she got her big break from? That cracked me up.]
Sweetest memories were of Christmas and getting a bag of the red and green kisses. This was a big treat as we did not get sweets very often. Still to this day when I see them at Christmas, I feel like a little girl again.
Marie
First of all, I did NOT know Boy Meets World was coming back. LOVE THAT! My husband is pretty excited too. Cute, right?
Secondly, we are a vacation right now that was spurred by my cousin getting married on the beach Saturday. She had special wedding favors for the six or so kids there. Instead of the wine cork thing everyone else got, the kids (including my two!) got bags with Hershey kisses and gum balls. I thought it was a really sweet gesture. Plus my kids shared. I eat Hersheh losses and don’t drink wine.
I remember sharing bags of Hershey’s kisses with my cousins when we were kids while we watched Disney movies.
My fondest Hershey’s kiss memory has to do with the Christmas themed ones. You know– the red, green, and silver wrapped variety? As a girl/teen, I would only eat the green ones. So weird, I know… :)
So many Hershey kiss memories! (We go way back you know – BFF and all!) But the sweetest one was recent. I was having an emotional melt-down in the airport after my hubby and I dropped out oldest son of after Christmas break. As we walked back through the terminal to our car, my hubby reached over to take my hand, and slipped a Hershey kiss into it. Seriously true story! Okay – I admit – I just cried harder. he was so doggone sweet about it!
I got a giant kiss for Valentines Day from my 10 year old best friend, Stephen. He had a big crush on me:)
I received one of the giant hershey kisses from my then-crush in tenth grade. It felt truly romantic!
One of my favorite Hersey kiss memories is when my son took one out of his Valentine’s candy and gave it to me, with the obligatory “Kisses for you, Mama!”
Every year I get my husband one of those plastic candy canes filled with Hershey Kisses for Christmas. Those things are sold at every drugstore, grocery store, and Target for miles around. But every year my hubby acts like I got him tickets to the Super Bowl! Those little Kisses are his favorite presents year after year. It makes me feel like an awesome wife. :)
My Granny used to love to tell me that when my dad was little he loved them so much he would eat them with the wrapper still on!
Are you ready to barf? One time Ryan his kisses all over our apartment for me to find. i didn’t even end up finding them all that night so I would run across them over and over for a few weeks. Super duper sweet ;)
Each year, during the night of Dec. 5th, ” St. Nicholas” leaves a trail of Hershey’s kisses from the bedrooms, down the hall and down the stairs for both of my kids to follow to their shoes filled with oranges, candy canes and more chocolate. The Easter Bunny does the same thing, too. Funny how the trails always seems to ends by my boots or hidden basket, too. :) We LOVE Hershey’s kisses in our house.
Love Hershey’s kisses – my new favorite are the ones with almonds in them! I love giving them to people and saying “kisses for you!”
When I was a teenager, one of the guys at church came up and asked if he could give me a kiss. I was stunned and couldn’t speak. He pulled out a large glass hershey’s kiss full of hershey kisses and gave it to me. It was too cute! I still have the glass kiss.
I received a box of cookies with Hershey’s Kisses centered on top for Christmas.
I remember when I was in elementary school that I won a giant sized Hershey kiss as part of the Valentines celebration. I can remember getting home and me and my brother getting out a knife to chop off pieces to eat. Then I remember the disappointment when we found out that this giant Hershey kiss was actually hollow. This was especially troubling for my brother because there was no longer enough chocolate for me to share!!!
I remember receiving one of those giant Hershey Kiss filled candy canes every year at Christmas. There is nothing better than cracking that candy cane open to dig into the chocolate, and nothing worse than realizing you have just eaten the last piece.
My aunt used to send our family a huge canister of Hershey Chocolates, Kisses included, every Christmas. To say us kids were excited is an understatement. :-)