{ Unclaimed Treasures Day }

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Very few people know this, but today is a holiday.

Eight years ago the first Sunday in June was named "Unclaimed Treasures Day" by Nikki and me, with the support of several other single young women and Chelle (our married supporter).  Our imaginations apparently had no limit!  We were getting rather anxious to be married and frustrated with feeling a little left on the wayside.  We decided it would be best to create a holiday just for single girls, to create romance for ourselves and make our single years full and rewarding and worth celebrating.  Following is some of the correspondence that passed between us as we worked diligently to create this holiday.  I do hope Nikki and Chelle forgive me for including their letters.... :)   

Originally the idea was to name the day Eligible Maids' Day. 

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Drumroll, please....brrrrum brum brum....

As of yesterday, May 22 2004, there is an important new holiday which we are all compelled to observe with utmost propriety and reverence. In the course of a conversation betwixt the lovely ladies Anna  and Nikki, these two observed that there be holidays in abundance to celebrate nearly every conceivable type of person: Mothers have Mother's Day. Fathers have Father's Day. Grandparents have Grandparents' Day. Everyone has a birthday. Married folk have anniversaries and Valentine's Day. 

They also made another grave and troubling observation: There is no holiday to celebrate our particular species, the unmarried woman, the unattached young lady, single girl--in a word, the Eligible Maid. This, my gentle readers, is a travesty. It is nothing less than a shame to our society, indeed to our whole civilization, that we have no special event, no day, no sacred remembrance to honor these pillars of modern society, the axis about which young men (theoretically) spin, the fountainheads from which so much poetry, weeping, tearful conversations, and troubled prayers in the middle of the night spring forth--the Eligible Maids.

Determined to rectify this shameful situation, Misses Anna and Nikki herewith proclaim the First Sunday in June to be henceforward celebrated as Eligible Maids' Day. This year, the first year in which Eligible Maids' Day will be celebrated, this holiday shall be observed on Sunday the 6th of June. Mark your calendars, and consider yourselves warned. All Eligible Maids (EM's) are sweetly encouraged to send Happy Eligible Maids' Day cards to the EM's of their acquaintance, and those who are not EM's are also free to send such cards to the EM's of their acquaintance as well. No other obligations are required of you, gentle readers, than to send Eligible Maids' Day cards to your Fellow Eligible Maids.

These sweet, gentle, and emotionally volatile creatures known as Eligible Maids need as much support as we can muster for them. Please, remember Eligible Maids' Day...or they might come after you with meat cleavers.

Respectfully,

Nikki, The Self-Appointed Secretary of the Eligible Maids' Day Committee

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There was more discussion, and we came to the decision that this name wasn't suitable.  It then became Unclaimed Treasures Day.

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The E.M.'s who have thus far been informed of this new holiday are, in alphabetical order:

Miss Anna

Miss Bethany

Miss Hesper

Miss Nicole

Miss Susan

I cannot guarantee the receipt of a note of encouragement, sympathy, despondence, etc., shall be received from each E.M.; I, for one, intend to include each lovely lady in my E.M. Day remembrances. I have also informed Mrs. Michelle of this holiday, should she feel inclined to honor any of the many E.M.'s of her acquaintance.

I am quite taken by your suggestion that we change the holiday's name to Unclaimed Treasures Day. Eligible Maids' Day is a bit unwieldy, both on the tongue and with the fingers, and it rather sounds as though we consider ourselves scullery maids (hair done up too tight, faces pinched out of shape) till Prince Charming recognizes us through layers of grime and soot--and scullery maids do not seem to me to be exactly the acme of "eligible." Unclaimed Treasures Day has a decidedly more romantic sound, and rings with promise--for if we are indeed Treasures, is not our hope that we shall someday be Claimed a well-founded, indeed a justified, one? On an entirely personal level, I should rather prefer to be an Unclaimed Treasure than an Eligible Maid. What say ye, Miss A.?

I sincerely hope I have succeeded in answering your inquiries, Miss S. I do hope that you shall not hesitate to contact me in future, should any further issues requiring more than one head (and yours is a most capable head, by the by) broach the surface.

Respectfully Yours,

Miss N.

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A response from our married supporter

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Brilliant Ones-
What wonderful minds you all have!  Splendid Idea...but I think we should have all eligible maids send cards to all eligible bachelors as well as to their own ...! Ones that say...."WAKE up...bachelors that sleepest and Christ will give thee "a" (my addition) LIFE (and life=wife or so says my man...only because it rhymes I say)...hope that isn't disrespecting God's word. Please tell me if you think it is. But you know how all those books on courtship talk about being "asleep" or how the Song of Songs talks about not waking love till its time has come. Funny how that is almost always directed to us girls, who are usually the ones that need the love sedative...not the male sector, most of which live in a constant & snoreful, dead-to-the-girl-and-all her-lovelinesses-I-am-terrified-of-commitment-don't-know-what-I-am-missing...sleep. So maybe we should also, for the sake of gender equality have a national  Eligible Bachelors (E.B's) Day  in addition to  Eligible Maids' Day....he...he..we could call it National Scaredy-Cat Day....sorry if I sound a little bitter....but do you blame me? With all my absolutely gorgeous and desirable single girlfriends I just can't fathom how totally blind the E.B's are...and how positively REVOLTING & nasty the un-E.B's can be...Well...all that said, You are absolutely on to something very key in CELEBRATING your singleness...it is most worthy of a holiday and most worthy of CELEBRATING!
In Fierce Defense of all E.M's,
 Mrs. Michelle

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For the next several years, on the first Sunday in June, cards were exchanged.  We were all separated geographically by then, so it wasn't very feasible to spend the day together, but a conscious effort was made to celebrate our lives as single women.

Maybe you know some Unclaimed Treasures!  Today would be an excellent opportunity to give them a call, take them to lunch, send them flowers.  And now that you know, don't forget to mark your calendars for next year!