the Valentine’s card

February 8, 2009.
Remember back in elementary school, the annual Valentine’s parties? We were assigned to decorate Valentine’s boxes and sent home with the class list, so to sign Valentines for each classmate.

We took shoe boxes, cut a sloppy slit in them, and wrapped them in red, white and pink construnction paper, decorated them with cut-out hearts and glitter.

We put them on the corner of our desk, before we set out to pass out Valentines, and returned to a boxful for ourselves.

Little gestures on tiny cards.

I remember being ver-ly careful about those little gestures. I was picky about the variety box of Valentines I chose for giving out. No matter what box I chose, there was at least one design I didn’t like.  The Valentines with the bumblebee, for example, went to my least favorite classmates. They didn’t know that, of course. I had trouble the  cards, including the Bee card, that said ”Be Mine” or “Bee Mine.”  I was forced to give those out to carefully selected recipients, because my box of Valentines had a limited number, and I had to give one to every classmate. Therefore the “Be Mine’s” had to be distributed carefully, in hopes that the recipients noticed the design I chose for them, and not the words.

I remember those days fondly now. And remember that Valentine’s Day can be celebrated among friends.

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