The St. Valentine's Day Massacre Party

Cliff and Victoria

I'm not fond of Valentine's Day. It's an artificial holiday overflowing with sticky sentiment, and while I think that sentiment has its place, in general, Valentine's Day seems to make more people miserable than it makes happy. Those without sweeties often mope all day, and those with have their expectations raised by the marketing hype, and are often disappointed. I have nothing against flowers, candy, or sweet words -- I just resent getting them all on one day because Hallmark, etc. tell us that's the right day for it.

You may be wondering what that has to do with the picture above. Well, I used to live in Chicago, see? And in Chicago, St. Valentine's Day is also the day of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre, a day in the 1920's when quite a few gangsters got shot up. And while I certainly don't generally advocate guns over roses...I do think it's more fun having a party on that day than sitting around moping.

The party was conceived somewhere around 1993 (or '92?) by my roommate of the time, Ingrid de Beus. It was to be a theme party on Valentine's Day, with costumes and bathtub gin, gangsters and molls, waterguns spray-painted black, and dancing. The party was a blast, and we get a few costumes we hadn't expected (a newspaper boy complete with satchel and cap; a corpse, painted blue with a tag tied tohis toe...). And since then, we've been having this party every year.

I don't live in Chicago anymore -- I've held it there, in Philly and in Oakland, where I currently ('99) live. But you don't have to be in Chicago to throw a St. Valentine's Day Massacre Party -- you just have to have a little of the spirit of Chicago. Drinking, debaucery and decadence. Flappers and gay fandangos. Maybe a little poker to liven things up...

Think about it -- wouldn't it be fun throwing one of these yourself?

[The image above is one of my roommate Cliff, who I actually knew at Chicago and who has attended several of these, and our friend Victoria. Cliff can keep up an Al Capone accent all night -- and insists on doing so. :-)]

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