A VALENTINE FROM GARY

Monday morning, Valentines day 2011. My pal "I" and I were up at four-thirty. When I opened the front door to let her out I stepped out onto the porch. Just in case I might see little cupids flying around or something. After all it is Valentines day. There was none. Just patches of snow that still cling to the ground and four plastic candy canes hanging from the trees. I have forgotten to take them off and put them away until next year. Oh well it probably would have scared "I" and I to death if we would have seen any.

I learned what Valentines Day was really about at East Central School. Valentines Day was a big event from the first grade on through grade school. There was always a party. Room Mothers would come with cupcakes and punch. I don't think they have room Mothers in grade school anymore. No home room parties. About a week before Valentines Day, the teacher gave everyone colored construction paper,scissors and glue. Everyone brought a box of some sort from home Mine was usually a oatmeal box. We decorated them and wrote our names on the top. Do you remember these?

Then we sat them on a table, all lined up and waited for the big day. Everyone brought Valentines and put them in the boxes of the ones they chose too. They were little paper ones, which came with twenty-eight to a pack I would go in before class and shake my box, Checking to make sure there were some in there.

In the first grade, my first Valentine's party was when I loved Gary Churchwell. I learned to write his name and wrote it all over the pantry wall. I wanted a Valentine from Gary. My world rested on getting one from him. When we were told to get our boxes, I dumped mine all on my desk. Looking for that one that was signed Gary Churchwell. There nestles among the others was one that had a heart, it also had the words love printed on the front. I sang, my heart sang. Gary Churchwell loved me too. Now all these years later I realize that he had of course given one to everyone in the class. And that probably all were alike but I didn't know that then. Looking back I realize Gary never loved me. I think he loved Barbara Danner. But for that one fleeting Valentines day I believed, in romance, magic and Gary Churchwell.

I tied my words in a pretty pink ribbon this morning. Carefully I untie the bow and set them free. I wonder as I watch them float away, will there be Valentines in Blogland today? Oh I am sure there will be. Love lives eternal everywhere I think. I sing a little as I walk, "Stupid cupid stop picking on me." I head for home where my two Valentines wait, The Emperor and "I". For now I'm outta here.



Valentine's Day

Observed by Many countries

Significance Love and affection celebrated between lovers
Date February 14
Observances Sending greeting cards and gifts, dating
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day,[1][2][3] is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions.[1][3] The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs, Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD. It was deleted from the Roman calendar of saints in 1969 by Pope Paul VI, but its religious observance is still permitted. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.[4]