In the early years of Ridgeway, Valentine’s Day was not a very big deal. Few merchants offered Valentine’s cards or gifts and parties were generally for the school children. But in 1900, the women of the Christian church sponsored a Valentines’ Day mask social at the Kern Opera House (located about where the Ridgeway hotel now stands). The evening’s entertainment included a special feature by “eight ‘maids’ and eight ‘bachelors’, each telling in the language of the poet ‘why we are not married.” Valentines masks were provided for those who wanted one and refreshments were served. I could not find a follow-up article to find out how the entertainment went, but I can imagine there was lots of laughter.
