Valentines Day Past

When I was a kid, I loved this day. Everything about it.
It usually started a few days earlier, when my Mom would take me to the store for that cardboard box of Valentines. When I was a kid, there was usually only 4 kinds to choose from, maximum. I'd deliberate, looking at the bright shiny red packages, then choose my favorite. Once home, the list of classmates would come out. We did not have the rule that you had to give one to everyone, but I did, anyhow. Usually, I liked everyone in my class. Well, some of the boys were icky, but I'd make sure they got the "ugly" valentine in the box. You know the one I am talking about, the one that you really wouldn't ordinarily use?
Painstakingly, I would write them all out, trying to put the message just right. Then they would be ready. Those little envelopes of happiness.
On the day, we'd be in a high exitement, usually fueled by sugar and conversation hearts. Every year, it seemed we'd make those big, heart shaped things for people to walk by and put the Valentine's into. And when it was time to do it, everyone would rush around as fast as they could to distribute their valentines so that they could go back and read what they got. I was no exception. Then, opening all those little envelopes! And seeing who'd bought the same kind you did (there was always someone). Finding the ones you liked the best, and reading them again. Sorting them into secret piles of who was the best, who wasn't quite the best.
As I got older, of course all this stuff went away. The little Valentines, the heart shaped recepticles. I have to tell you, I still kind of miss them. Walking past them in the drug store, I always kind of take a peek over what they have. And remember Valentines Day's past.
But Valentine's day, as adults, is really nice, too!