Why I love Valentine's Day
I was at Target yesterday, wondering where all the people came from who were out and about (then I rememembered that it was a public school holiday....that explains all the kids). I was perusing the aisles of the Valentine merchandise, just because I love to look at it all. Valentine's Day brings such warm and happy memories for me. Next to Christmas and Easter (because of their higher significance), I would have to admit that Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday.
The little candy notes for classmates took me back almost 20 years (WHOA!) to my memories of 2nd grade, of having an empty milk jug attached to my schooldesk with a string, decorated to look like a heart-shaped creature with accordian papered arms and legs dangling down. Slowly, one by one, classmates walked around the classroom and dropped into these crates their valentines for everyone else. Some were merely signed, some had lollipops attached, and some of them had mother-made goodies wrapped in tiny cellophane bags, such as chocolate pretzels or divinity.
And I would come home and pour the contents out on the kitchen table, Mom beside me, searching frantically to see if that little orange-haired boy, Matt, gave me one....and if he did, did he write anything that could mean something more under the surface?
Then I fast-forward to Valentine's Day of 1990, when I was almost 12, when Dad was stationed in Fort Clayton, Panama, for the 2nd month of a long 14-month separation. He had sent a package to Emily and I with candy and two little Hallmark teddy bears, black with red ribbons on their necks.....as if those little tokens could take the place of a real hug and kiss from our Dad (it didn't). And Mom tried to make that year more special for us, too, by giving us bookoos of rice-crunch chocolate hearts and ornate cards. A wonderful surprise to come home to after a day at the middle school where I was trying so hard to fit in....6th grade is the toughest grade, especially when you're the "new kid."
Then fast-forwarding again to the first Valentine's Day Ken and I spent together as a dating couple, in 1997. Ken had checked on a Valentine's Day package at the Melting Pot fondue restaurant, but their rates were much too steep for a college student's meager budget. So he set about creating an authentic recreation of the Melting Pot at his parent's house for me, complete with gruyere cheese fondue, court bouillion with shrimp, steak, chicken, and vegetables, and a chocolate-orange dessert dip. I was on cloud nine.
I walked slowly through the Target shelves, looking at all of the conversation hearts (which, to me, taste a little like Pepto Bismol), the red suckers with the white "painted" hearts that leave white streaks on your tongue, the 1,000 varieties of chocolate candies, and of course, the googly-eyed monsters and monkeys that hold "I Love You" pillows in their stuffed paws. I marvel at all of the red and pink that bombards my eyes....two colors that ordinarily would say to "clash" but that flow together so beautifully and harmoniously in February. What a wonderful holiday. Childhood memories, and now the anticipation of memories yet to be had on this day.
Happy Valentine's Day, everybody.
The little candy notes for classmates took me back almost 20 years (WHOA!) to my memories of 2nd grade, of having an empty milk jug attached to my schooldesk with a string, decorated to look like a heart-shaped creature with accordian papered arms and legs dangling down. Slowly, one by one, classmates walked around the classroom and dropped into these crates their valentines for everyone else. Some were merely signed, some had lollipops attached, and some of them had mother-made goodies wrapped in tiny cellophane bags, such as chocolate pretzels or divinity.
And I would come home and pour the contents out on the kitchen table, Mom beside me, searching frantically to see if that little orange-haired boy, Matt, gave me one....and if he did, did he write anything that could mean something more under the surface?
Then I fast-forward to Valentine's Day of 1990, when I was almost 12, when Dad was stationed in Fort Clayton, Panama, for the 2nd month of a long 14-month separation. He had sent a package to Emily and I with candy and two little Hallmark teddy bears, black with red ribbons on their necks.....as if those little tokens could take the place of a real hug and kiss from our Dad (it didn't). And Mom tried to make that year more special for us, too, by giving us bookoos of rice-crunch chocolate hearts and ornate cards. A wonderful surprise to come home to after a day at the middle school where I was trying so hard to fit in....6th grade is the toughest grade, especially when you're the "new kid."
Then fast-forwarding again to the first Valentine's Day Ken and I spent together as a dating couple, in 1997. Ken had checked on a Valentine's Day package at the Melting Pot fondue restaurant, but their rates were much too steep for a college student's meager budget. So he set about creating an authentic recreation of the Melting Pot at his parent's house for me, complete with gruyere cheese fondue, court bouillion with shrimp, steak, chicken, and vegetables, and a chocolate-orange dessert dip. I was on cloud nine.
I walked slowly through the Target shelves, looking at all of the conversation hearts (which, to me, taste a little like Pepto Bismol), the red suckers with the white "painted" hearts that leave white streaks on your tongue, the 1,000 varieties of chocolate candies, and of course, the googly-eyed monsters and monkeys that hold "I Love You" pillows in their stuffed paws. I marvel at all of the red and pink that bombards my eyes....two colors that ordinarily would say to "clash" but that flow together so beautifully and harmoniously in February. What a wonderful holiday. Childhood memories, and now the anticipation of memories yet to be had on this day.
Happy Valentine's Day, everybody.
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ILY
Ken