Remembered (whew!)
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Valentine's Day brings me back, every year, to one singular Gary P., from Shipley Elementary School, whose father worked in the telephone business. A fact which never did register with me until Valentine's Day, my fourth grade year, when Gary P showed up at school with the most extraordinary collection of telephone wire rings. They were for me. They were the brightest, most wonderful, coily things—unwearable, absolutely, but so infinitely zingy, and here was the thing (I repeat myself), he'd made them just for me.
Well. That was love.
Isn't that love?
I have been hearing from my friends today—from my cousin, in Florida, from Errin, in Seattle, from Nettie, temporarily lodged in San Francisco (go Macy's), from Kris, out in the west, from Nazie, nearer by, from Libby M, down the street, from Brooks, who has traveled so far and gained so much, and, just now, from Grete, who has sent me the most glorious Budding Beauty, eternally alive.
Happy Valentine's Day to you all.
b
