Jim and I were in Meijer the other day and walked past a center promo of Valentines. It wasn’t hard to get nostalgic about our youth when we’d spend long minutes contemplating the different designs (talking hearts with tennis shoes and white gloves), superheros (Superman, She-Ra), crazes (NKOTB), etc. in Walgreens or wherever your cards were purchased. You had to have cool Valentines as they were a direct reflection of you. Nothing too baby, nothing too cheesy.
Of course after you buy the perfect box of Valentines it was vastly important that the right card was addressed to the right person. You can’t send something remotely lovey to the boy/girl you actually like, lest they know of your crush. The ones that say “You’re my best friend” need to be pulled out and reserved as well.
Once each card was properly assigned to the correct classmate, you had to determine whether or not a personalized message should be written. Of course your best girl friend gets a special message, but just your name suffices on the vast majority of your peers, especially those of the opposite sex.
I don’t know about you, but my mom made me give a card to everyone in the class. By the time I hit third grade the school mandated that every classmate get a Valentine. We had Valentine bags that we’d set out at our desk; they were brown paper lunch bags that were decorated in art class the day before with our name scrawled at the top. At the end of the school day we did the big pass-out of Valentines. I never looked in my bag until I got on the school bus and then I devoured the envelopes in a mad rush, trying to find the one that my crush sent to see if anything personal was written. Of course nothing actually ever developed for me from this “love letter” exchange in all my grade school years. Did it for anybody?
Seeing those Valentines in Meijer made me want to go through and get some. Of course I probably would only vaguely recognize the characters on the cards today- Dora the Explorer, Hannah Montana, or some other current fad I'm guessing. I think the best Valentine of recent years was Lisa’s homemade one I got last year- so sweet!
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9 comments:
I LOVED!!! Valentines as a kid. I think Care bears were my fav fad.
I consider Valentines day to be less about professing love as adults and more about when you're a kid handing out goofy cards to your classmates (our holders were made from shoeboxes with a slit in it, I think), paying 25 cents to get out of uniform to wear red shirts and jeans, and getting hopped up on sugar conversation hearts. Ironically the grownup version just seems hokey compared to that. Yet another holiday gone to the kids in my opinion (I'm glad the grownups still have Thanksgiving - that's the most important one to hold onto!!)
Is Nicole sending out valentines this year to all her relatives? Little ones under a year old often have a nice "footprint" signiture. Multiple handprints can be a little difficult since they often ball up their hand when covered in goo...but when you can get 32 cards for $2 redos are cheap :)
I liked it as a kid, but we don't even celebrate it in our house. A much more important day is a week before V-day! :-)
And I'm with Martha. Thanksgiving is the best. How can you beat a holiday where eating is the whole point?
Trey is sweet. :-)
Karen, you are making me want some of those conversation hearts...
Mmmm... conversation hearts. We don't really do anything big on valentine's day, but the best one was where Danny got me my guitar and a heart shaped pizza (before we were married). :-D
25 cents to get out of uniform? What would a $20 get me?
We don't have that tradition here. In recent years, along with the general Americanization of Europe, there have been cards around and little decoration stuff. But V.'s Day here means, that you give flowers to the women around you (wife, mother, sister, girlfriend). The men get nothing, as everyone knows: men don't like flowers. ;) :)
I'm glad you like my valentine last year! :)
My experience was EXACTLY like yours. And it made me all nostalgic just reading about yours!
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