Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published Feb. 9, 2005

Valentine's Day was different in elementary school

That day of hearts, flowers and candy is just around the corner. Earlier generations remember it as the day when every class in elementary school made it a really big celebration. Kids created fancy boxes to carry the Valentines they made or bought to give to classmates. The idea was that each student in the class received a Valentine from every other student. Even though the teacher often sent a list of her students' names home so everyone would be remembered, it didn't always work. There were always some who received only a few cards.

Later during high school days Valentines were given quietly to very special people. Often a dance or other social program would be planned to celebrate the day, but it was not considered the big deal it had been in earlier years.

In my life Valentine's Day once again became a really big deal several years after I graduated from high school. I was in nurses' training school and during the Christmas break friends arranged a blind date for me with one of their close friends. By February a serious romance had blossomed from that date.

Even though 65 years have passed, I still remember my feelings as I stood looking at the array of Valentine cards shortly before February 14 on that first year after we met. I read card after card searching for one with words that expressed how I felt about this man. It couldn't be too gushy or sentimental.

That sounds quaint today but in those days we were raised in an innocent era. Terms such as "hooking up," an accepted and casually used phrase by today's teens, would have needed an explanation for my generation. In many homes there were some subjects not protected by freedom of speech.

Which card I chose my memory has blanked out, but it didn't hurt our relationship. Two years later we wed. Kipling wrote "Sing the Lovers' Litany: Love like ours can never die!" We believed those words then and still do in our 63rd year of marriage.

No longer do I need to worry that words to my Valentine are too sentimental. To you, my faithful husband, I send these words from the poem "Bedouin Song" written by Bayard Taylor.

I love thee, I love thee,
With a love that shall not die
Till the sun grows cold,
And the stars are old.
And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold!

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.