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Norton publishes piece about Valentine's DayCandy Love Is FleetingBy Rose Hooper |
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In a phone interview from her new home in Wellsboro, Pa., Elaine Norton relayed her excitement at having a short piece published in Reminisce magazine.
Many will remember this Jackson County native as Elaine Moses, a former Fisher Creek resident. Just in time for Valentine's Day, Reminisce printed her piece "Candy Love Is Fleeting" in a special section called "From the Heart." "Actually, it's a short piece taken from the February chapter of my book 'P.S. The Cat Had Kittens'," Norton said from her snowed-in Pennsylvania home. She shares it here with her Sylva Herald friends: Candy Love Is Fleeting "One Monday morning, before St. Valentine's Day, a beautiful red box with a white lid and ruffles appeared on the table near the pencil sharpener in the back of our classroom. We were going to have a Valentine's Day party. |
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"That box decorated with cupids, hearts and flowers was the most gorgeous thing most of us had ever seen. We tiptoed to the box each morning, and from time to time during the day, slipped valentines through the slot in the lid, always being careful not to let anyone see who was getting mail.
"The teacher had a list posted so that each name was correctly spelled, and when the great day arrived, a girl and boy were chosen to help deliver the valentine mail. Miss Martin never was partial to boys; she said girls might someday be postal handlers. Soon, everyone was reading, glancing up to see the faces of special friends and trying to guess who sent what. "Many of our valentines were cut from the wallpaper sample book. It came free from Sears and Roebuck if you returned a card that was included when "The Wish Book," as we called it, was mailed to our homes. |
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"Plain valentines were made from tablet paper and were the most common, but the messages and who they were from were the important parts.
"The rhymes were copied or sometimes created by sender. It was such fun to read them aloud: 'As sure as the vine grows across the river, you stole my heart and half my liver.' 'Jay bird, jay bird, sitting on a stump. Won't you be my sugar lump?' "One clever boy had drawn on colored paper a picture of a dog with an extremely long tail ending with a heart. This creation carried the message: 'From John to dear Mary Jane.' We all thought that was very nice. Mary Jane tried not to look too pleased, but we knew would sleep with that one under her pillow. "My first store-bought valentine was a creation to remember. Made from some sort of marshmallow, it was hard as a rock and about as edible. Anything so lovely should never be eaten, anyway. It had two blue doves surrounded in great swirls of candy lace holding a pink ribbon in their beaks. The lettering on the ribbon declared that the new red-headed boy wanted me 'To Be His Valentine.' "As the valentine was being passed around and admired, my admirer, overcome with shyness, his face red as his hair, pretended to be looking for something he dropped beneath his desk. At last, he came up and glanced my way. I smiled - a great big one. He went hunting again under his desk. He overcame some of his shyness later in day, and I carried that candy heart to school for a week in the pocket of my buttoned-down-the-back apron. Often I would take a lick from the back side of my special treasure. I wanted the front with the doves to last forever. When I felt generous, I shared licks with my brothers and sisters. "The end came on wash day. Sister Burla finished my valentine off when she found it in my apron while Mama was doing the washing. "I howled in anger and sorrow. Mama said she hoped all the germs and sticky mess would not injure Burla's health. I admit I didn't care a bit if Burla's tummy ached as much as my heart did." Norton's new address is 39 Central Ave., Apt. F, Wellsboro, Pa. 16901. |
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