All through my elementary school years, Linden School (high it stands above the Valley, Linden Pride of all…)the holiday of Valentines was an important occasion, to be celebrated in each and every classroom (even in the rooms of very scary and mean teachers, whom most kids thought really didn’t have a first name just Miss) Linden was one of the few Pittsburgh elementary schools at the time which was a K-8 building, so the students had lots of experiences participating in the Valentines Day rituals. For the younger students, creating Valentines Boxes was a big deal, it was as if you had homework, and needed to present a work of art to be placed on your desk. I can remember at least until 6th grade, the urgency by the teachers that each student at least provide some means of receiving a Valentine. Now, the 50s were not a very flexible period of time, things were very black and white, literally and figuratively, and culturally men were men and women were women, and to be more EXACT, your were masculine or you were feminine. (We at Linden, during our 7th and 8th grades spent one day a week at a school called Sterrett where the boys attended Wood Shop, and Mechanical Drawing, while the girls spent time learning Home Economics and Sewing) So, when Valentines Day approached, at least for most kids in fourth or fifth grade a real dilemma arose and permeated until the February 14 came to a close. Should boys give boys a Valentine, and exactly what cute little phrase would be written on that card. Touchy, because, if it was too mushy, you might come across as a homosexual, bland enough and you were still cool. In some classrooms the teachers instructed EVERYONE, to provide EVERYONE with a Valentines Card. As I remember it, by the time 7th and 8th grades rolled around, we still celebrated Valentine’s Day, but the restrictions on EVERYONE receiving cards was not as forceful, more of a, as you wish basis.
February 14, 2018, and without hesitation, deliberation, I am sending my HUSBAND, a Valentines card, with kisses, hugs and a giant out loud I LOVE YOU. No more sneaking around to be mushy, no more hiding to be physical, no more permission from others to express how I feel, and why I feel that way. It took me too many precious years of precaution just to discover that Love is Love, no matter to whom you express it. As in the 50s, there are still people too afraid of their own insecurities to embrace the people they love, because the people they may love of the same sex. I remember back in the days if by mistake, some boy sent another a Valentines card and hadn’t done enough scrutiny, missing perhaps the word love, a chorus of boys would sing a little ditty, “Andy and Stuart sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g, lots of giggles shared and a blotch of red on the both the recipient of the love car and the sender. We were so afraid to be real. Well this in answer to that ditty, I sing LOUDLY, and PROUDLY “Joe and Gerry, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love and you know THEN came the marriage. Ain’t that a kick in the pants! I love you Joe Bruno!
