Valentine’s Day

I loved Valentines Day, for one Its Valentines Day Charlie Brown would be on. Peanuts cartoons that were the newest thing on TV! Snoopy would kiss Lucy, and Charlie Brown would dream about that little red haired girl.

We got to make an awesome box at school to put Valentines in.

That was the most fun. Except maybe in the second grade when Mrs. Payne asked me to distribute something for her, and I told her no thanks! I found myself air born, flying like a kite from an older gal who had a firm grip on my ear lobe.

Out to the hall we went, coming back in was much better…but, my ear hurt for a week.

Back to the groovy boxes, they were all sizes, made with lace hearts, construction paper hearts, way too much glue, glitter and everything we could find to decorate it with. We couldn’t hardly wait for the party! When it was time, we each took turns “mailing” each other a Valentine we had written out at home, and put it in every box. Then the room mothers broke out the Kool Aid and totally yummy looking cupcakes with a conversation heart in the middle of that red frosting. Then as we fed our tummies full of sugar, we read our Valentines. Great way to end a school day.

Now to race home to show our folks our Valentines, and see what surprises were waiting for us. Dad always got mom the biggest brightest, lacy, ribbon, heart shaped Box of Valentine candy that he could find. My brother and I also would get a smaller heart shaped box of goodies.

We of course ate ours sparingly and had our eyes on mom’s box. Once she had opened it, it was fair game. She would say if we would like a piece, help ourselves. So we would head for the box of heaven, choose a piece, turn it over and stick our finger in it to see if it was a kind we liked.

If we didn’t, back in the box it went, and we kept poking them until we found one we wanted. Years later she told me she thought dad was doing it, until it dawned on her the finger pokes weren’t very big. Poor mom, she didn’t get a whole piece of candy without a dried up finger hole in the bottom of it until we left home. Okay, fine, yes we still snuck over and did it. Happy Valentines Day!