Be my Valentine

“Be My Valentine” has been fun for kids and for lovers for generations.

As I was remembering back over the years, I recalled my first Valentine.

I think it was my first, but it’s so long ago that I can’t be sure. After all, it was before I started to go to school so it had to be before I was 6 and my memory is blurred by the years.

We each received a big, fat envelope in the mail. We opened them to find a big, brightly colored Valentines. Mine folded up at the bottom.

When I pulled the flap down, the figures on the Valentine sprang to life, leaping forward with a colorful diorama of flowers, butterflies, birds and a little girl in a garden, with unfolding bright red tissue hearts, and flowers carefully folded to stand out from the card when it was opened.

I remember the joy it gave me, and I played with it carefully until I wore it out.

Today, such a card would be a collector’s item.

In elementary school we had many more valentines. Each year in out small rural school we prepared a Valentine box, sealing it so no one could peek.

Each student provided a decoration for the box, usually with a homemade bit of art so the box became a thing of beauty to the kids holding a place of honor in the schoolroom.

The children busied themselves making Valentines. Card companies made large assortments of inexpensive Valentine cards so almost all the kids could afford an assortment of bright colored cute cards which they secretly addressed to kids they liked and slipped them into the box.

On Valentine’s Day we had a party with a cookie, motto hearts candies and cocoa. With great ceremony the Valentine box was opened and cards handed out to the recipients who gathered them in, counted them and compared with each other.

My sister and I played with them for days, keeping only our favorites.