“It Had to be You!”

I hope everyone had a good Valentine’s Day. We did. Barry is the best card selector/finder in the world. I’m not sure where he finds them, but he finds just the right ones to send to me. In addition to finding a very appropriate one sent in Bessie’s name (our spoiled, but adorable black Lab), he surprised me with a musical card that not only played Sinatra singing “It Had to be You,” but it also lighted up while the music played! Lovely! We danced for a moment at 7:30 AM! I took it with me as I ran to all my errands yesterday and smiled whenever I opened it and heard Old Blue Eyes singing just to me!
We usually limit the celebration of Valentine’s Day to cards, but Barry also suprised me with red roses! (He’d hidden them in the basement until yesterday morning – in a vase with water. This is a man who thinks of details!) I decided that warranted a special dinner last night which I truly enjoyed preparing. It was a good day.
Ellen’s blog made me think of Valentine boxes in elementary school. I’ll bet elementary teachers have gotten much smarter than they were when I went to Rosedale Elementary School. We all helped to decorate a Valentine’s box the week before the big day, and all through the folllowing week we brought in Valentine’s for our classmates and put them in the box. On the big day, the teachers opened the boxes and several students took turns handing out the cards. The bad part was that some students got lots and lots of Valentines, and some got only a few. I actually remember one student in third grade who got none, and no one seemed to notice her tears. That’s a pretty rugged lesson to have to learn in third grade. I hope the rules have changed and everyone must bring a card for everyone. (I loved getting cards where the names were signed in a code of numbers that substituted for letters, and the ones that said “Guess Who.”)
When I taught at the high school, the student council held a fund drive where students could pre-order carnations to be delivered to their friends on Valentine’s Day. Different colors carried different messages. A neat idea until the day arrived , and I would see some students carrying many flowers with them all day, and some students carrying none. Life has its accidental cruelties, and I know we can’t keep our kids from experiencing them , but Valentine boxes and flower sales seemd to drive home the point a bit to harshly. Was the messge that signs of friendship and love are actually most important as a status symbol?
Had an email from Sofia, my stepgranddaughter yesterday. I’d sent her a Valentine, but she’d run out of hers and had none to send me, so she emailed me a sweet message. But she was sick yesterday!!!! What a lousy break! She’s 12 and lovely, and I’ll bet she’ll find a lot of Valentine’s waiting for her when she gets back to school. (I’m quite sure that Niko, our tall, handsome 9 year old grandson also has a lot of charmed little girls who sent him cards. Ah, love! “It Had to be You” – the best of all!

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