Happy Valentine's Day to you! I hope you were remembered by someone special today. This is one of the few days of the year when forgetting can be a very bad thing. Ask anyone who is married or in a committed relationship, and you will be given the rundown on what happens when you decide to forget today.

The importance of Valentine's Day is ingrained in us at an early age. Parents buy presents for their preschool age children, some continue to buy cards and small gifts for many years. I received and sent Valentine's greetings to my parents for many years, changing the sender to my children after they were born.

It's one of those holidays that the conspiracy theory buffs go off on, maintaining that the entire thing is made up by the greeting card companies for another excuse to get into our pockets.

The recent weather has given us a very stark reminder of why, in my opinion, this holiday is important. The seemingly endless cold, snowy and icy weather can lead to feelings of being cooped up and depressed. The bright red hearts, cupids, kind words and even some romance provide some much needed respite this time of year. One could even make the case that the distraction from everyday life in February is worth all of the effort and then some.

My most clear memories of Valentine's Day revolve around the parties we would get to have in school and all of the preparation that was involved. Since we were required to give a valentine card to everyone in the class, purchasing the properly themed mix was very important.

Then, as well as now, retailers carried a wide variety of assorted valentine card packs. If you wanted to appear more manly, a Superman or Batman themed pack would fit the bill nicely. I don't really recall how these superheroes expressed friendship or affection, but it all got done without any lawsuits.

I recall spending seemingly endless hours signing and writing classmates' names on valentine cards. It probably took an hour, but when you are young and it is after supper, an hour doing something you dislike can seem much longer. I think Einstein's theory of time probably has a corollary somewhere in all of those letters and brackets that equates to time passing in direct relation to how much fun you are or aren't having.

The next seemingly Herculean task involved creating your own special mailbox for the day. Not being blessed with the creative gene, mine mostly involved covering a box of some sort (usually a shoebox) with good old aluminum foil, cutting a hole in the lid, and perhaps adding some hearts cut out of red and white paper.

I can only imagine what folks like Martha Stewart did with their valentine boxes.

Then the big day would arrive. You would carefully haul the cards, your box and even some of the party snacks if your mother was unfortunate enough to be on the list for providing treats for the valentines party on to the bus and try to arrive at your classroom intact.

When the time came for the party (usually after lunch and before afternoon recess) it was time to travel around to all of your classmates' desks, carefully delivering your valentines into each and every "mailbox," in a strange dance-like ritual, timing the entire procedure so you would not have the awkward moment of sitting at your desk while someone brought you a valentine.

The rest of the time was like any other party: food, some games and the added bonus of getting out of math or reading for a day. It's not until later in life that the romantic connotation of the day kicks in.

I have fond memories of those parties, even giving and getting cards and card from people that I really didn't like and the feeling was, I'm sure, mutual. There's something to be said about making everyone participate.

Because it changes far too quickly later in life.

Don't eat too many chocolates!

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.