Hearts and Stuff

Valentine's Day sort of snuck up on me this year. My favorite MOW lady wished me a "Happy Valentine's Day!" on Wednesday and I felt terrible that I had overlooked it. I would have gotten her a card. Today I was thinking about the date a lot and I was thinking about my favorite memories and I thought I would share two of them:
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When I was in third grade I picked this boy named David to be my boyfriend. My girlfriends teased me because he wore black horn-rimmed glasses and had crazy unkempt hair and big freckles, but there was just something about him I liked. And he made me laugh. Well, that was probably the thing about him I liked. We would talk on the phone every night for an hour and it was really annoying to my parents but I guess some part of them found it amusing because they didn't put a stop to it. Once I even arranged for my Mom to drive me over there for a visit (they did not live close) and we sat on the couch in the "front room" which is a southern traditional room from back in the day that was like a fancy living room that was never used. (I'm pretty sure I should have used a few commas back there but I read somewhere that people use too many commas so I'm trying to restrain myself.)
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Our relationship was very long term for third graders and we even had big fights and make-ups. I still own the piece of paper that got me sent to the office and caused my parents to be called to the school. I had written "David is a sun of a bich" and tossed it in the trash just as the teacher walked in. By the time my parents came to the school, David and I had already made up. I'll always remember the principal asking, "Is this the language she is learning at home?" and my Mom cooly responding, "Is this how she is learning to spell here?"
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As I mentioned before, our whole relationship was a big shocker to my schoolmates. I was the most popular girl in third grade and I can brag about that now because that was it for me. Who peaks in third grade? Oh yeah, me. So anyway, Valentine's Day rolled around and all my friends got the regular valentine card (from the box set) from their cute boyfriends and what did I get? I got a HUGE and I'm guessing it was maybe a 18" x 10" valentine card from David and the big pink heart had felt on it! Not only that, but I got a little box of Whitman's Sampler chocolates. Those girls were so jealous and I hope they learned something about picking boyfriends. (I tried to use that story to help my daughter in her young years but it didn't help.)
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Another favorite Valentine's Day memory happened in 7th grade. In December of my 7th grade year we moved to another town, so by the time Valentine's Day rolled around - just two months later - I really didn't have any friends or know many people. On Valentine's Day I got a large (not David large, but big) Valentine's Day card in the mail. It had a padded satin heart and was just a gorgeous card. I think I have it in a scrapbook. It was signed "from your secret admirer." I was all excited thinking about every cute boy in school. I walked around on cloud 9 for a while. It really perked me up and made me feel special. I didn't find out for a long time that my Dad had sent it. How sweet is that? He must have been having a hard time keeping a straight face for that week or so that I was talking about the card and wondering who my secret admirer was.
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I hope this post brought back some sweet memories for you. Happy Valentine's Day!