I have no idea what lies ahead. I wish I did but absent a crystal ball or fast-forwarding device, I’m as clueless as the next guy or gal. Am I worried? Scared? At a loss about what to do? Absolutely. Wait a minute… We are talking about Valentine’s Day, aren’t we?
I never put much stock in VD as it’s known in calendar circles and doctors’ offices. It always seemed like one of those Hallmark inventions, like National Croissant Day (yesterday) or National Baked Alaska Day (tomorrow). (If you must know, today—January 31—is National Backward Day, or Day Backward National if you prefer.) Some events on the calendar claim a higher calling: like Kraut and Frankfurter Week (second week of February) or National Umbrella Month (appropriately March) or even The Year of the Rooster (especially appropriate this year).
But Valentine’s Day, as you undoubtedly know, always falls on February 14 which also just happens to be—in an odd twist of fate—Singles Awareness Day. (Really, it is; I’m not making this stuff up!) Moreover, as the romantics among us know, it honors (among other things) St. Valentine who performed weddings for Roman soldiers who were forbidden to marry, a woefully misguided policy (akin to that other famous Wall, the one built by Hadrian) which ultimately led to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. But what made matters worse for Signor Valentine, however, was that he also ministered to Christians during the darkest days of their persecution. That godly habit landed the unfortunate Valentine in prison where he continued to minister to other prisoners and even healed the gravely ill daughter of his jailor, Asterius. One would have thought this would have earned the poor guy some time off for good behavior but remember, we’re talking about Rome, so for his “crimes,” Valentine was executed but not before he could write a note to Asterius’ daughter which he signed “Your Valentine.” Hmmm; I wonder if Hallmark is aware of that…
Anyway, despite its decidedly unsentimental roots, Valentine’s Day took on a more romantic veneer as early as the 14th Century, the high water mark of courtly love. By the 18th Century, it was being celebrated with flowers, candy, and greeting cards. But it wasn’t until 1910 when an 18-year old boy named Joyce Clyde Hall stepped off a train in Kansas City armed with a couple of shoeboxes of postcards he intended to peddle that Valentines Day as we know it became a day worth celebrating. It only took a few years until Joyce and his brother Rollie were making their mark (so to speak) in the postcard business, but on January 11 (National Step in the Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day),1915 their business went up—literally—in smoke. The fire ruined all their inventory and the Hall brothers were forced to start over. No more postcards this time—sales were declining and folks wanted more privacy in their communications. The obvious answer? Greeting cards with envelopes and the first ones to come off the revamped Hallmark production line were just in time for—you guessed it!—Valentine’s Day.
The rest, as they say, is history. But history is a one-day-at-a-time affair and although it has certainly proven kind to the Brothers Hall and their numerous descendants, it can leave the rest of us on tenterhooks. Sure, it’s partly the what-do-I get-her-this-year feeling that arrives in early February (please remember that Freelance Writers Appreciation Week is February 5-11 this year), but it’s also the general angst and fear that accompanies any kind of pivotal change that leaves us all a bit breathless.
We are still talking about Valentine’s Day, aren’t we?
Jamie Kirkpatrick is a writer and photographer with homes in Chestertown and Bethesda. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. “A Place to Stand,” a book of his photographs, was published by the Chester River Press in 2015. He is currently working on a collection of stories called “Musing Right Along.”
(A note to my readers: this essay marks the 52nd consecutive week of “Musings” in The Chestertown Spy. It’s been a good year—thanks for musing right along with me!)
Carla Massoni says
Thanks for the muses!