Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010
Ahhh, Valentine’s Day
Jan Huntsinger, Guest Columnist
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In the 1950’s all a kid needed were sheets of red and pink construction paper, lacy paper doilies, a bottle of LePage glue, a pair of blunt scissors, a shoe box and a lot of imagination. With all this assembled we could put Hallmark to shame.
Ah-h-h-h Valentine’s Day, a holiday that all the girls looked forward to; the boys –not so much.
The school party was looming and we had to have the most decorated classroom of all. We made and hung huge paper hearts on the walls and sometimes we got to hang some of them from the ceiling.
Our art classes were totally devoted to this day of hearts and lace. We all worked hard cutting and gluing hearts of all sizes and yes some were a little lopsided on to our shoe boxes. We had to have just the right box ready to hold all the valentines we looked forward to getting.
While we girls labored on our hearts and flowers, the boys normally chose to stick hastily drawn cars and trucks on theirs. Not a heart or bit of lace was anywhere on them.
After our boxes were done, we proudly displayed them around the room. Our next job was to make a list of all the kids we wanted to share a Valentine with. These lists were then taken home where Mom was then in charge of helping us to pick just the right one for the right person.
We would labor to sign our name just a neatly as we could and then put the name on the envelope.
Sometimes, if we were lucky, Mom would surprise us with some special stickers she had gotten for us so we could decorate the envelopes. When this was done, we proudly toted them back to school and tried to sneak them into the boxes so the owner would be surprised to find their boxes filling up.
We were allowed to go to other classes to put special valentines into the boxes of our friends that we didn’t share a class with. As the boxes filled up the anticipation of the party grew.
The girls clearly were the most excited about opening up the contents. The boys tried to act disinterested but every once in awhile when they thought no one was looking they could be seen checking theirs out. Looking back on it, they really started that macho stuff early. According to them, the best part would be the Kool-aid and cookies or cupcakes that the room mothers would bring in.
Speaking of room mothers – we had the best. They always brought the standard stuff but they always surprised us with something extra like a bag of small multicolored candy hearts all tied up with a ribbon.
With the party over, it was time to head home where my big sister Donna and I would find for each of us a beautiful red satin heart box filled with chocolates at our places at the family dinner table.
A few days ago I came across a scrapbook I had put together of my childhood valentines.
How fun it was to read each and then remember the person who cared enough to put it in my very specially decorated Valentine box. What sweet memories of times past.
Wonder what happened to my first love, Dennis?
Jan Huntsinger, a Blue Springs resident, is a guest columnist for the Journal. To respond to today’s commentary, call 816-282-7001 or e-mail editor@bluespringsjournal.com.
