The kids ran in the door with their bags of Valentines from the school party.
“Look what I got!” they grinned as they emptied their bags. Red, white and pink cards with cute and funny pictures littered the floor.
We looked at each card, talking about the party. Nate stopped and looked up with a sad thoughtful expression, “my friend ‘B’ did not bring any cards to the party. His mom said they could not afford to buy any.”
I felt so sorry for his friend. I understand tight finances especially with young children. I accepted it would be tight so I began my holiday planning and shopping for young children the day after with the 50 and 75 percent off clearance sales. Every holiday comes every year at the same time. Early on I decided I would have the basics, if not the latest and greatest.
Shopping ahead for special events like Valentines Day became such a tradition that after the last child left home I really missed bargain shopping. Only memories remain of Valentines Day with kids Memories of their evenings bent over the kitchen table, painstakingly choosing cards for each classmate and writing their name on each card.
I did the same thing the year my mom bought me a magazine sized set of Valentine cards to cut, assemble, glue and address. I spent hours at the farm table working on that project with glue, scissors and pen. (Stores do not sell card books like that anymore. They take way too long to make!)
When I finally finished, I gathered up the piles of addressed cards in a sack to carry to school while riding the bus. At school I added my cards to each students’ Valentine boxes, gloating when I glimpsed the cards in my own box.
On the day of the Valentine’s Day party, an undercurrent of excitement distracted us all morning as we worked on math and reading. Why did they always have to make us wait all day for the party?
But wait we did until an hour before school ended. Then the room and school hallways exploded with the gentle rumble of children’s voices. We opened cards. We ate the decorated cookies, cupcakes and candy. Then, we gathered up our boxes and bags of candy and cards before catching the bus and heading home to show Mom.
Valentine’s Day brings a spark of joy after the grey days that follow Christmas, the doldrums of winter and bleakness of January. Red hearts pierce the monotony of winter weather.
Traditions change. Somewhere in the 1970s, florists created balloon bouquets, delivered by elegantly dressed couriers. The first year I heard of it, I decided to send my mother a bouquet of balloons in February. She called from her home hundreds of miles away.
“I looked out the office window at the car that had just pulled up and saw a man wearing a tuxedo coming to the office with a big bunch of balloons. He came in and said they were for me!”
Yes! For once I had actually managed to surprise her.
A few decades later, my newly retired husband passed on the element of surprise. Only instead of wearing a tuxedo, he made a heart shaped costume from red fabric he found in my sewing room. He put it on and wore it into the newspaper office carrying balloons or flowers. I really do not recall which. Obviously the man in the heart was the real Valentine.
It definitely provided something to run home and tell the family about that day and for many years to come.