Happy Valentine’s Day to us all, and I hope you are having the kind of Valentine’s Day you prefer! I brought Fun Dip classroom valentines to work, feeling a little silly but then glad I’d done it. One coworker said “Ah, this brings me back to my youth!” and we had a pleasant talk about our childhood candy experiences.
We both feel, without going so far as to look into it and find out, that candy was relatively cheaper in our childhood than it is for current children. She remembered being easily able to buy candy, chips, and a soda with pocket change. I remembered candy bars being 25-40 cents, depending on my age (25 cents more toward elementary school, 40 cents more toward high school), and if I bothered to check those figures or check an inflation calculator I’m guessing that doesn’t translate to the $1.59-2.29 I see now, but maybe it does. We also remembered the wide variety of items available in the 1-cent, 5-cent, 10-cent range, and wondered if those things are still sold in stores we just don’t happen to shop at (or maybe we’re not looking in that section anymore): little boxes of Mike & Ike’s, Lemonheads, Boston Baked Beans; packets of two Dinosour Eggs or a single Giant Chewy Sweetart; Tootsie Rolls; Tart ‘n’ Tinys; a Sweetart lollipop made of two colors of pressed powder; Swedish fish, which we both remembered being sold UNWRAPPED IN BINS FOR PEOPLE TO PICK UP WITH THEIR HANDS AND THEN PUT ONTO THE BARE COUNTER. I myself shopped at a store that was endlessly patient with children endlessly browsing the candy; they’d put our items into small brown paper bags and fold over the tops, and I remember the Treasure feeling of carrying that home.
Where was I? Oh, yes: Valentine’s Day. I gave a Fun Dip packet to my boss, even knowing she avoids dyes, because it seemed like the other options (giving her something different from everyone else; not giving her anything; rethinking the whole idea and trying to customize a 25-cent valentine to each coworker’s preferences) were bad options, and because after spending some time hand-wringing those options I thought “Wait: this is a silly 25-cent workplace valentine, anyone who doesn’t want to eat it can toss it directly into the trash and it doesn’t matter one bit, it is not worth anywhere near this level of thought”—and, as it turned out, she seemed unaccountably pleased by it, almost touched? Reminding me that is is hard to know what small thing can etc. etc.
I have put out the giant Hershey Kisses for the two Home children, along with some assorted candy left over from making care packages for the Away children. I have filled a heart-shaped bowl with more leftover candy. I put a pack of heart-shaped Reese’s peanut butter cups on Paul’s desk. I am wearing a heart t-shirt, and heart-patterned Converse high-tops. I have some See’s to eat. Tonight we are going to watch Valentine’s Day, a movie I noticed at the library and, considering how much I like an ensemble cast, can’t believe I’ve never seen. It is…not well-reviewed.