Handy Candy

Valentine’s Day is a favorite holiday of mine. I remember the happy parties from grade school, but I also have fond memories closer to home, before the holiday was so heavily “monetized.” (I’m holding my nose as I type the word, even though it appears often these days.)

A trip to the drugstore covered all the bases for the holiday back then. Our moms bought a small box or bag of Valentines for us to deliver to our school friends. I favored the ones in a book with perforations to free them before I printed my name. The little cards had clever sayings like “You’re plane nice,” with a picture of a jet. Or “You’re in the core of my heart,” above a half-eaten apple. Each came with its own envelope for us to address for just the right friend.

Meanwhile our dads, my own included, could hit the candy aisle at the drugstore for a Whitman’s Sampler. Price: $2.00 for a one-pound box, a wise investment considering the “sweet” return.

Remember those yellow box lids with the “French Edges” and the embroidery-like designs? Founded in Philadelphia, the company is now over 175 years old and still selling. Who could resist a slogan like “A woman never forgets a man who remembers”?

During WW #2, the company shipped 6,000,000 pounds of candy to our servicemen. The girls working the assembly lines would often slip in notes of encouragement or thanks, sometimes generating friendships or even marriages. Ever the clever marketers, the company began to solicit real embroidery samplers which they sometimes displayed in their showrooms and shops. In 1969 those examples, many of them antiques, were donated to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and are displayed there occasionally.

I’m sure my dad had no idea he was contributing to history when he shopped for the candy. Mom got a big box, my sister received a medium-sized one and I got the “baby box.” Like the three bears, right?

Today it seems the holiday is all about keeping up with the Jones’ for many men. They better come up with Godiva chocolates, at least a dozen red roses, and maybe a nice piece of jewelry too. After all, the guy next door did it, and his wife will definitely be bragging about it at Bridge.

Despite my Old School cynicism, I hope you’ll be spending time with someone you love while I’ll be baking heart-shaped cookies.