Although a Christian bishop named Valentine was martyred on February 14 in A.D. 271, there is nothing in his legend to account for the custom of choosing a sweetheart on this day. In medieval England, people believed that birds mated at about this time, and farmers knew that "winter's back breaks" by the middle of February.

By the early 1600s, it was a popular custom to send handmade valentines to your sweetheart, and in about 1800 the first commercial cards appeared. Cards were usually sent anonymously. An English official reported having to hire extra postal workers to handle all the mail on this day in 1822.

Children especially love Valentine??™s Day (as do those of us who remain kids at heart). Equipped with red construction paper, white and gold paper dollies, ribbon, glue, scissors, and pencils, children cheerfully set to work creating their own valentines. Add some magazines or old cards for cutouts, and the results of a child??™s imagination are predictably surprising and, quite often, amusing.

Homemade valentines were one of the very first things many of us made with our own hands. We all remember folding paper in half and cutting out the shape of a heart. Remember the ones that turned out too skinny or too fat? After practicing and practicing, finally you would cut out a nice heart almost every time.

Were your first valentines made from red, pink, and white construction paper? Did you paste them on top of each other, varying the colors and sizes? If you were lucky did you have a paper doily to glue them onto for a special border? Did you graduate to making a valentine person with big hearts for the head and body and little hearts for the arms and legs? Most of us share these same memories. Isn??™t it nice to know we share a common experience with so many others?

Things haven??™t really changed very much. If you walk down the halls and glance into the rooms at your local grade schools today, you will feel like you stepped back in time. Kids are still making projects that look very much like the ones we did many years ago. We remember those first handmade valentines fondly, and they are sharing the same rewarding experience.

Valentine Cards seem to fall into two categories ??“ the sentimental and the comic. For a sentimental one you want lace, ribbons and red hearts (perhaps stuck on to the card with a piece of satin or velvet) and a little poem inside to your friend. A comic one depends on your own sense of humor. My nephew received a beautiful card one year showing a working model of a heart, taken from a biology book with the inscription ???My heart beats for you.??? Sometimes the card is sentimental but the kick is in the message:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Grass is green,
And so are you!

For fun-loving families send Secret valentine morning messages by cutting hearts from white paper and write love notes on them with a white crayon, then, hide your hearts in strategic morning locations. Place a box of watercolors at the breakfast table, and brush paint over the hearts to reveal the messages.

Delicate paper doilies look pretty too by gluing different sizes of heart shaped doilies to the card front. Or, using a round or oval doily, cut hearts out, arrange and glue. You can also embellish the edges of your cards with lace and doilies.

FEBRUARY is a perfect time to make homemade note cards. Making potato prints on white or colored note-card paper is easy and fun, and something your children can do with you. First cut a large, clean potato in half. Put one half in a plastic bag while you work on the other half. Dry the surface with a paper towel, then, use a paring knife to cut out a relief design, cutting down about 1/4 inch (try heart shapes for Valentines). Dry off any excess moisture.

Dip the potato in a shallow dish of poster paint, acrylic paint, or water-based inks. Test the design on a piece of paper before printing on your cards. Try using different designs and colors on the same card. A potato stamp can be kept for several days wrapped in plastic and refrigerated.

Make a present for your Valentine

What nicer present for a teacher or your loved one, than homemade sweets? Even if you haven??™t got a Valentine, sweet making is fun and you can always eat them yourself!

Peppermint creams

I pound of icing sugar
1 egg
Juice from half a lemon
A little peppermint essence

Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl to remove all the lumps.
Separate the yolk from the white of the egg by breaking the egg into a saucer, placing an egg cup over the yolk and slipping the white off into the bowl of icing sugar.
Put the yolk aside to use on another occasion. (If you leave it in the egg cup and put some water in on top of it, covering it with plastic wrap, it will keep better.)
Mix the egg white and the icing sugar together with your fingers until it is thoroughly combined; you need to work hard at this.
Add the lemon juice one drop at a time, so that the mixture holds together well.
Now add about half a teaspoon of peppermint essence a drop at a time until you get the taste you want.
Press out the mixture on a cool surface until it is about one-quarter inch thick.

Cut it into shapes using a knife, cutting it into squares, triangles, diamonds and so on.
Leave to harden -- preferably overnight.

Valentine??™s Day is a time to think about those we love, and it??™s a day to remember to TELL those how we feel. Whether you make your own valentines or send purchased cards, flowers, or candy . . . someone is waiting for your loving message! Let your heart be light and loving so you too may find Valentine??™s Day wonderfully rewarding.

Valentine??™s Day is very special a chance to show our love
And be thankful for all our friends, which are blessings from above.
So Happy Valentine??™s Day everyone and may your life be rich
Full of love and happiness for that??™s our only wish.

Remember that a Valentine says what??™s in our hearts!

Hartson Dowd

It wasn't until I heard Skipper's deep, guttural bark, Chrissie and Scruffy's excited yapping, and the three geese honking--triggering the disappearance of the three preschoolers out the door that I realized what time it was. Licking my fingers, then wiping my hands on my apron, I hustled the cake into the cupboard, and the dishes into the sink.

"I wonder if Dean will keep our secret," I said to myself as I rinsed the evidence off the dishes. But I hadn't long to wonder as the children burst through the door, dropping their lunch kits onto the counter, all trying to talk at once.

"I didn't tell, Mommy." I heard the piercing announcement through the din of eight other youthful voices. I smiled at the four-year-old, and stood watching the excitement of the children.

"I got twenty-eight valentines," piped six-year-old Dennis. To him Valentine's Day was a new experience, and clutching them all in his hand at once, he came toward me.

"And I got thirty," announced eight-year-old Dale.

"Look!" I cut in, "Let's all get changed out of our school clothes; then we can all share the valentines. In fact, let's save them 'til after supper. I have a surprise for you."

"Mommy's got a cake," piped up three-year-old Dougie. But his announcement fell on deaf ears as the excited children scrambled into their bedrooms to change their clothes.

It was then I noticed David, also eight, standing still by the door, clutching a Valentine--a favorite, I presumed. His usually smiling, moon-shaped face had a peculiar look on it, but before I could question him, he walked by me to his bedroom to change. I didn't think any more about it until suppertime. I handed the children plastic bags to put their Valentines in.

And now, as the children gathered at the table for the evening meal, the excited pitch of their voices had risen to a crescendo. Daddy wouldn't be home for this special supper, as he was on the bridge crew with the Department of Highways, and was away repairing a washed out bridge.

With the meal cleared away, and all the children in their pyjamas and housecoats, a habit we adopted on chilly winter evenings, we all gathered around the large dining room table. I had told the children at supper that my surprise was: we were going to have a valentine party, and that we would save our dessert until then. The excited children clutched their plastic bags in their hands and assumed their usual mealtime places. I brought out some candy I had saved for the occasion, and set the large heart-shaped cake in the middle of the table.

Now it was time for us all to share the valentines the kiddies had gotten from their friends at school. They pulled the cards from the plastic bags and set them on the table in front of them. It was then I noticed that David had only one card in front of him. My heart nearly broke, but now was not the time for questioning. There would be time for that later.

When it was David's turn to share his valentine, that strange look reappeared on his face. He turned the card over, and his usual smile returned to his face as he read, "To David, My Special Valentine. From your Teacher, Miss Waters." The card was not anything out of the ordinary. It was just one of the run-of-the-mill valentine cards, but to David it was special. After he read it he hugged it to his heart. It was the only one he had received.

There was nothing wrong with David. That is not why he did not have friends, nor why he did not receive any valentines. He was not shunned by his peers because he was a trouble-maker. He was not shunned because he was extra stupid or extra smart. It was not because of any obnoxious behaviour, nor because he was a smart alec. No. It was just because he was a **Native Indian. Our children were all foster children, and they were all mixed-blood, Native Indian children. All except for David. He was a pure Native Indian from the Indian reservation in Atlin, British Columbia.

My heart was breaking just now, breaking for a sweet little boy who was shunned by his peers because he was different. I went over beside him, looked at his valentine, and said, "Oh David, that is SO special. Let's put it on the fridge so that we can look at it every day, for as long as you want."

I decided that the best thing to do was to make a big thing out of what he had, rather than showing him pity because of how much less he had than the others. And the three little ones saved the day. In unison they said, "Let's have the cake now."

Relieved that the crisis was over. I gave David a big hug, and told him that he could pass out the valentines we all had made for each other. And David was equal again. He was amongst his friends and his family, where there was no prejudice, just a lot of love.

** NOTE: This story happened in the sixties. The attitude toward Native Indians (or First Nations, as they have chosen to be called now), has changed in the past 30 years. Also, now there is a much more ethnical mixture in the present-day schools, than there was when this story took place.

?© Helen Dowd

thedowds@telus.net

www.occupytillicome.com

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