Editor’s note: With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, we are reminded about the preciousness of love – and how love means something different to each one of us. We asked members of the WhipCity Wordsmiths to share their thoughts on love – and as always – their submissions are thought-provoking, eloquent, and in many cases, personal. Our series today features Susan Buffum of Westfield.
WESTFIELD-Susan Buffum is an author and artist. She and her daughter Kelly are co-founders of the WhipCity Wordsmiths, established in June 2017. Together they have created a thriving literary community in the city.
Buffum is also a director of ArtWorks of Westfield, Inc., helping to plan events that provide local authors opportunities to meet the public to promote and discuss their work.
She just published her 24th novel, “Camden Lake.” Her books are available on Amazon, Kindle, and directly from the author. She can be contacted at [email protected].
“New members are welcome to join the group,” she said.
Buffum’s submission is titled “Remembering Elementary School Valentines.”
Remembering Elementary School Valentines
I was shy back when I was in elementary school. Valentine’s Day was both a source of apprehension and excitement for me. I loved the creative part when the teacher would say it was time to make a Valentine’s Day mailbox. Mom saved an empty shoebox each year for me to craft a mailbox from. The teacher provided colored construction paper, lacy paper doilies in white, pink, and red, and plenty of paste.
Mom would take me to Grant’s to select a package of valentines. The cards were cute, funny, and often shaped. They depicted animals, or boys and girls and had plenty of hearts on them. Some had funny rhymes or puns while others simply requested the recipient to ‘Be My Valentine.’ There was always a teacher card included in the package.
Valentines that writer Susan Buffum purchased on eBay several years ago. (SUSAN BUFFUM PHOTO)
As Valentine’s Day approached we would finish up making our mailboxes, keeping them on a corner of our desks in anticipation for party day. A list of all the students in the class would accompany us home a week prior to the big day. I remember sitting at the kitchen table, a Bic pen in hand, carefully printing my first name on the back of the cards. Choosing which card to give to each classmate involved much thought and consideration. Diplomacy was learned and practiced at an early age. On Valentine’s Day the teacher expected each student to have a valentine for every student in the classroom.
I liked picking out the valentine’s I thought were the cutest, the funniest, and the prettiest for the classmates I liked best. I would pick and choose, carefully matching the card to an envelope and then neatly write a classmate’s name on the front of the small white envelope. The cards, when signed, ‘addressed,’ and sealed, were dropped into a brown paper lunch bag and carried to school on Valentine’s Day, or the Friday before if Valentine’s Day fell on a weekend. Moms sent in tins or boxes full of homemade cookies and brownies on party day. The teacher provided Dixie cups and either milk or juice for our party.
An hour before the three o’clock bell rang we would put away our schoolwork and get out our ‘mailbags’ in preparation for making our valentine deliveries to every mailbox. There was a buzz of excitement in the air as each row was called and the students in that row hurried about the room depositing their valentines into the correct mailboxes. When the deliveries were complete we were summoned by row to the table where the goodies were laid out. A few treats were chosen and a cup of milk or juice was provided before we returned to our seats to snack, and then open our valentines.
I loved reading all the valentines at home, looking again to see who had sent me each one. I kept them in my desk drawer at home for many years, banded together by year. I liked going back to look at them again and again. Eventually they were discarded but the memories of those wonderful elementary school valentines continues to live on. I still enjoy looking at the boxed valentines for school children in the stores this time of year and remembering days long ago when I’d rushed home with my chosen package of cards and start making them out to my classmates and teacher.
Sharing the love in one’s heart with one’s classmates and teacher made the world a nicer place back then. Celebrating Valentine’s Day with one’s spouse, partner, close friends, family, children, or loved ones (even the furry, feathered, scaled, or finned ones!) still continues to make the world a warm and wonderful place to live in today. Happy Valentine’s Day!
