If any of you looked at old advertisements in old newspapers from let’s say, 1900 to 1920 you are not going to see a lot of advertisements for Valentine’s Day. It is certainly become very special or at least well advertised of late. I randomly pulled three advertisements from today’s newspaper.
The first one is for pizza. You can buy a heart-shaped pizza for $6.99 available February 14 only. The ad reads the way to one’s heart is through the stomach. It encourages you to pick up something special for Valentine’s Day. It states that it has 0 g of trans fat. And it says phone ahead pre-order today. On the back it says a sweetheart of a deal is $9.99 and for $9.99 you can get a heart-shaped pizza, cookie dough, and 2 liter bottle of soda. The advertisement is done in full color; there is a vase of roses, a plate of cookies, and a cola colored iced drink , plus the pizza.
The next advertisement offers a T-shirt which says “I have the cutest boyfriend” for $9.99. I don’t see any ads for a T-shirt which says, “I have the cutest husband”. What’s the deal here? Another thing you can buy is a pink camera, which is on sale. And of course , all of us want a new washer and dryer or vacuum cleaner or set of pots and pans for Valentine’s Day. Perhaps your husband wants a set of tires. Amazing how they advertise everything for the sake of a holiday.
The last advertisement is from a jewelry store. It’s a classical four page ad done in color on slick paper. We are to ask about the interest-free financing. It tells us we can shop online 24 hours a day. In the slick it has big pictures, one could almost cut the photo out and wear IT! Let’s say that you wanted to buy your sweetheart a princess cut solitaire ring. The diamond is big enough and the picture to look like a 2 carat. I don’t know very many people that have $9,000 to spend on an solitaire ring, if that was in our budget I’d prefer to have the ring designed. This same ring can be bought for $400 which has a one fourth carat diamond.
I always look for some kind of a hook or special that is made to intrigued us to shopping at a store or website. It’s a come on to get us into the store. Here it is! It is on the back page: Valentine special!!! Present this coupon to receive a 10 carat White Gold diamond pendant for this incredibly low price of $39.99! It is a 1/20 carat count, while supply lasts , (of course). Does that make you want to shop early?
Diamonds, flowers, candy are all wonderful expressions to give to your loved ones on Valentines Day. Let’s think in terms of saying,” I love you” on a daily basis and giving hugs. Let’s think in terms of something as simple as a card as an expression of how much we care. Let’s not limit this to just February 14.
One of the sweetest considerations for Valentine’s Day that I’ve ever, was in Lawrence, Kansas. As I have said in the past I worked with durable medical equipment. One of the chronic lung patients, obviously on Social Security and strapped for cash, would buy boxes of Valentine’s Day candy on the 15th of February and bring a box to me at the office. He would call me on the 14th of February to tell me he would see me the next day. Isn’t that sweet?
Think back in time to when you were in grade school. From the time I can remember we exchanged valentines. They were generally valentines that were already made--called ‘store bought‘. Perhaps we’d add those nasty little candy hearts with the words on them. We made certain that we gave the sweetest messages to the people we liked the best. I specifically remember in second-grade, our teacher, Miss Norell, made a beautiful Valentine’s box which looked like a coach. The box was in the rotunda on first floor of old Washington outside our classroom door. I am not going to tell you who I had a crush on, but I can tell you, that if I had one of those T-shirts that said” I have the cutest boyfriend” I would be pointing to him!
At what point do Valentines parties in schools stop? It seems to me that it was in elementary school. I remember my daughter Rachel and I cutting out Valentine’s from green tag board. During that era, Farah Fawcett was the most beautiful lady on television. We cut out faucets for the boys, with some sort of a jingle about hoping they got their faucet, (that sounds really, really bad now, but at the time, I can assure you it was totally innocent). I can’t for the life of me remember what we cut out for the girls. Rachel, can you help us out here? I know it was some cute guy that was on television. The only name that comes to me is Shaun Cassidy. What was the jingle?
I was not good with my kids coming up to me the night before and saying things like, " I need a Valentine box for tomorrow". There were, however, exceptions to the rule. Ryen wanted to make a beatnik. It was decided the base would be made a coffee can. He had originally thought about using strips of newspaper and liquid starch, of course that wasn’t going to be ready the next day. Time was not on our side; the best we could do was use the product doctor's put on people’s arms when they are broken. These strips are embedded with a hardener and available at durable medical equipment companies. For some reason, totally right brained at the time, knew and not to let Ryen touch that stuff. He drew out a design. Gloveless, I started working with the impregnated strips. The product dried almost instantaneouslyand he had his beatnik valentine box.
I didn’t know my fingers were going to become webbed from the solution. I would be trimming my fingers with scissors and biting off the hardened product for days. I would drive along in the company van, biting at my fingers and pulling off not only the product, but my skin as well. It wasn’t until five or six years later, that my hands were back to normal.
Silly woman.
The only child I haven’t mentioned is Bud, who saw no need for frills and lace; to him, a common shoebox with a slit in the top worked just fine.
I am hopeful that you get out what you feel you have to have for Valentine’s Day. I am hopeful for a lovely card that makes me cry because I know that Tom will give it to me after he is read the card which says what he can’t say.
There is something in me that says make the card. When it comes to a holiday, or birthday, especially for him, but I want to make the card even if it says fishy kisses, because he knows what I mean.
Hugs to all of you
You have a week to make your plan.
e.
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