A Valentine Memory

Remember these? Candy wins the day for any child, and I loved these in elementary school. Strange, they began to taste like medicine, child vitamins specifically, as I got older.

Here are a few things I found out about heart-shaped candies from Google websites.

• Necco is the candy-maker.
• They date back to before the Civil War.
• They were factory made in 1902.
• The most popular messages are "Kiss Me" and "Be Mine."
• For 2010 messages will include "Tweet Me," "Text Me," "You Rock," "Soul Mate," "Love Bug," and "Me + You." These were all chosen in an on-line survey.

The question that remains for me is who made them by hand (women, I'm sure) and what was the process and ingredients?

I plan to bake brownies for Valentine's Day here at Castle Yonder. Once I'd been married a couple years and The Old Coot hadn't recognized V.Day, I gave up expecting anything. I also gave up pouting about it, and decided I'd just give myself a present, as I had learned to do for my birthday.

During the past recent years, The Old Coot usually gives me a V.Day card. I used to give him a bag of sour ball candy.

So if you can't figure out how to compromise a V.Day present, buy a bag of Necco's and give each other a heart. Happy (early) Valentine's Day!

The Old Crone