Valentine Princesses: Funny Valentine’s Day Memories

It was a warm, almost spring, day in 1997. I was teaching a kindergarten class in a public elementary just outside the city limits of San Diego, California. Lakeside, a small rural suburb with a strong sense of community, is known for rodeos and chicken farming.

It was Valentine’s Day. My teaching partner, Sarah, and I were working with our group of lively and enthusiastic five and six year olds. That day they were even more excited than usual. Their anticipation was increasing by the hour.

We’d spent the past week preparing for our classroom party. We’d learned about letter writing and had visited the local post-office. We’d talked about love and had brought in teddy bears and favorite toys for show-and-tell. We’d spent the afternoons decorating the classroom with Valentine people with construction paper accordion arms and legs, and large heart shaped heads.

Everything was moving forward in a feverish pitch. We had read to the children, cut pink, white, and red play-dough hearts out with cookie cutters, and decorated cupcakes. The entire class was waiting in great anticipation for the final two hours when we would deliver individual Valentines, have our small classroom party, and go out to the playground that we shared with the other two kindergarten classrooms.

As the day went on, however, I noticed that one little, five year-old, boy named Larry was becoming quieter by the minute. Normally cheerful and outgoing, he stayed apart from the other children. Larry sat quietly throughout the party and silently lined up with the other students when we went outside.

Once we were on the playground, I realized that Larry was missing. Sarah and I looked around the area surrounded on three sides by chain-link fencing. Sarah checked the path that led to the office while I asked several children if they had seen Larry. Finally one small child waved her hand toward a patio just outside the other kindergarten classrooms, toward a wooden coatrack covered in backpacks.

And there, hidden away beneath lunchboxes, extra jackets, and school bags sat Larry, surrounded by a circle of brightly colored princess backpacks, hugging a mermaid!

Each Valentine’s Day, I recall this funny Valentines Day memory, and am reminded of Larry’s first romance!


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