If you were in elementary school in the 60's, you either dreaded or looked forward to Valentine's Day. It was a great day to get out of normal bookwork at your desk, but some students probably would have rather done the work (gasp!).
A few days before Valentine's Day every child in our class would get to choose huge sheets of construction paper in various shades of red and pink. We would fold those in half and draw as big a half a heart that we could possibly make, then cut our half a heart out with scissors, the folded edge being the edge we didn't cut at all. When we unfolded our work--presto--it was a great big heart! We did the same with both sheets of construction paper, and when it was all cut out we would staple, paste, or tape the sides and bottom together. Then we would embellish our heart with smaller hearts, drawings in crayon, and most importantly, we would put our name on it in big letters somewhere. Then we would tape our handiwork to the front of our desk on Valentine's Day. When our morning schoolwork was done, we would move our desks into a gigantic circle, so our cardholder-hearts were in full view and easily accessible to everyone in the class. Oh, the noise and chaos as we all got out the valentines we had brought to school for our classmates! It was all laughter and giggling as we went in all directions to fill each other's hearts. We would end up with a heart full of cheap little cards in very thin, cheap little envelopes with our names on them.
The cards were usually very corny, with puns being the main attraction. Sometimes they had little games to play on them. They didn't have candy or anything else attached to them back then. They were very basic, most of the time. If they were fancy, they had a bit of glitter on them, and that was all the fanciness. The images on them were of clean-cut, rosy-cheeked kids, or baby animals, or cartoonish characters. Hearts always figured in somehow. Most of the time you said who the card was "to" and "from" on the back, which was just blank. 
A few moms always made goodies for the whole class. There were sweet, frosted cupcakes, cookies of all kinds, and candy. Sometimes the moms came and joined in the party, but other times they just sent the snacks with their student to school. I always thought that Valentine's Day parties were a lot of fun. It was a time to let up on studying and being serious, for just an hour or so.It seemed that I usually had something of a crush on one little boy or another in my class. Opening HIS card to me was always the highlight. I was filled with anticipation--does he secretly like ME too? Will his card say anything special? But alas, most of the time it was a duplicate of other uninspired cards in the pile, with the all-caps, block printed signature of a boy who wasn't ready to think of romance, let alone act on it. Ah well. Maybe next year...
When you think of Valentine's Days past, do you remember them fondly, or was it a day of agony for you? When we were young, none of us probably ever thought that there were many different kinds of love, and we may have felt shy or embarrassed. We might have felt odd giving a card to a person in our class we didn't particularly like. There are probably lots of emotions, even in today's kids, on Valentine's Day at school. It is a nice celebration, but it seems to be celebrated less these days. What do you think? However you remember it, have a very happy Valentine's Day this year! If you are here on this earth, you are important and loved.
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