Ecclesiastes 3:1,4
There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven. A time to weep and a time to laugh.
Love 101
The fifth grade is a time when hurtling your own true love to the ground in a game of “your it”, can be the highest token of romance possible, at least that’s how I recall grade five in the early fifties.
Love could also be signaled by that special fellow writing in your autograph book, (remember them) . He would scrawl some illegible message across the page that would send your heart pounding.
There were many ways grade school love was undertaken but none as thrilling as Valentine’s Day.
The red and white box decorated with cupids and heart’s would come out every year and hopefully would hold secret messages of romance for all of us. Of course all valentines to the opposite sex had to be sealed in an envelope and I recall most of us were to shy to open our envelopes in class. We preferred to stuff them into our book bags and read them privately as to eliminate the embarrassment of it all.
The valentines were distributed amid high anxiety and wildly veering emotions. Love in grade five was straight forward, you either got a valentine or you didn’t.
So when I got a valentine from our class Adonis, Larry - my heart stopped beating. I held my head down as he handed it to me, not daring to look up in case I made eye contact with him. I could feel my valentine was laden with heavy sparkles, it felt gritty right through the envelope. I knew it must have cost at least ten cents, a total luxury in those days. A penny valentine purchased from Woolworth’s was a carefully considered expenditure.
You gave a valentine to those who were really worthy of your affection, your very best girlfriends and of course, one to the secret love of your life. No one ever made homemade valentines, as our dear old teacher Mrs. Gorman declared they “were tacky.” Neither would she allow comical valentines to be distributed as she believed them to be foolish and did not reflect the romance of the occasion.
I gazed at my sealed envelope for the rest of the afternoon hardly able to wait to open it and read the loving words of my dear Larry. I was sure his words would be that of a poet in love.....When the bell rang I snatched my valentines and headed for home anticipating the love note of the century.
Once home, I raced to my room and closed the door. I slowly and ever so carefully slid the card from its envelope, so not to disturb even one silver sprinkle. There it was... a beautiful silver heart, encrusted with silver glass sprinkles and pink roses. Lace filigree surrounded the heart like a doily, cupids and red hearts filled each corner. A gilded message read “Be Mine” and the words were entwined with narrow pink ribbon. I felt my face flush and my hand shook as I opened the card expecting ecstasy . And there, scrawled in a school boy’s hand, “To the fattest girl in the class, from Larry.”
No lover’s stab could have pierced more deeply. Cruelty knows no boundaries in the love life of a fifth grader. I put it back into its envelope with tears streaming down my face. I never threw it away but I never spoke of it to anyone, least of all to Larry.
Well as all things go in this world my life went on, as did the rest of the fifth graders. I do recall Larry lost some of his charisma after that Valentine’s Day. However as you can imagine, the story doesn’t end here. Many decades later, a friend’s daughter was getting married and my husband and I attended the ceremony. As we walked down the reception line my friend was standing beside the grooms father, a short fat little man with a shiny bald head......you guessed it.....as she held my hand she exclaimed “Dawn this is Lynn’s new father-in-law Larry, you must remember him from grade school.” Gee I replied, I can’t say that I do, however, nice to see you Larry.” I smiled as I thought to myself, “Well Larry ole boy you sure ain’t no Adonis anymore.”
Happy Valentine’s Day, especially to all you Adonis’ out there, who are just learning the language of love. Please note, a simple “Be Mine” is suffice to palpitate the heart of any fat girl.
Love Lesson 101 - there are times when the less said , the better. Until next week, make every ordinary day...extraordinary.
Dawn
