remember in elementary school when you decorated a brown paper bag and taped it to your desk on valentine's day. throughout the day classmates would drop their cards in these homemade glittery mailboxes. i used to love that day at school. i was so shy i don't even think i had more then a few good friends, but on that day everyone gave everyone else cards. even those girls who stuck rocks in my braids wanted to wish me a happy valentines.
here is a story by jd salinger, published in 1941 in esquire. in it there is a love letter that starts out the best way a love letter could ever start out:
Dear Miss Lester:I hope a few lines will not annoy or embarrass you. I’m writing, Miss Lester, because I’d like you to know that I am not a common thief. I stole your bag, I want you to know, because I fell in love with you the moment I saw you on the bus. I could think of no way to become acquainted with you except by acting rashly—foolishly, to be accurate. But then, one is a fool when one is in love.
ok, i hate valentine's day. wake me when it's over. i am psyched to check out the kaiser chiefs tonight though, their saturday show is getting good reviews.
That Salinger piece is one of my favorites. Good to know I'm not the only one.
Posted by: amanda | February 14, 2005 at 09:41 PM