February! The best month of the year! At least that’s what I thought during my schoolgirl days. That was before ‘they’
ruined it by consolidating presidents’ birthday celebrations and cheating us out of a holiday. Fortunately, all that only-on-a-Monday business came along after I was grown.
I remember waking up on February first in those long-ago days with the tingle of anticipation. It was the shortest month of the year and at its very end (except for Leap Years) was my birthday! In the meantime, there would be two holidays – Lincoln’s birthday on the 12th and Washington’s on the 22nd. And in-between, Valentine’s Day! To my way of thinking, February was even better than the year’s other biggee, December.
Some years I made my valentines ‘from scratch.’ For days the dining room table would be littered with pieces of red construction paper, pink and white tissue paper, bits of paper lace and… stickers! How I loved those stickers! But I had to be very careful which stickers went where. Heaven forbid I give someone – especially a boy! — the wrong message! And, of course, I made the most special one for the teacher.
Inevitably, I ran out of time getting all those greetings together, but there was always a reprieve two days before the Valentine’s Party. It was, in my mind, purposely arranged to have a school holiday on Lincoln’s birthday just so we could finish up our valentine preparations.
The other thing great about celebrating those presidents’ birthdays was that we spent several school days before each of them doing “president things.” Every year we heard how Lincoln grew up poor and how he walked a zillion miles to return a book he had borrowed – Honest Abe. And we heard the story of George Washington and the cherry tree – another honesty story which, in all honesty (ahem!), I thought was pretty lame.
But the best part was cutting out those black silhouettes of each president’s face and pasting them on big red hearts. I liked that so much that years later I taught that lesson to my primary classes, even though by then we had to lump both holidays together. And the new observance didn’t even come on a real birthday – just on the Monday closest to Washington’s. Totally bogus.
Well, such were my thoughts this morning on the first day of February. I wonder if there are still kids who feel all tingly when they think about the month ahead. I hope so.
Yes, there ARE still kids who feel tingly…. I have a little cherub whose birthday is Feb. 22. He burst int0 the room today, saying, “It’s finally February!” At lunch he said, “February is going great!”
I had a meeting with his parents this afternoon. His dad said he started counting down the months until February since his little sister’s birthday in April. And he is amazed and delighted that he is a birthday twin with George Washington. Delight with the lovely month lives on. And we will be making those hearts with heads… Happy February!
HOORAY! The beat DOES go on. Please give that little cherub a hug from me. And tell him “Happy Birthday” too!
February is always one of my favorite months, too. As a child, we always had my birthday off, as I was born on 2/22…won’t say the year! I, too, remember the Lincoln and Washington silhouettes. When we made our valentines, my Mother gave us some of her paper doilies to cut out and trim the hearts. To my eyes, it always looked like lace. Making our valentines was always a huge undertaking and extremely exciting. We also decorated a cardboard box to be used as our valentine mailbox. Such happy memories. Thank you for reminding me.
As you know, Sydney, I share your love of February and always have for all the reasons you’ve written about. In first grade I was in a class of 40 so I really hauled in the Valentines! And frequently we get the very best weather in February. True, it snowed quite a bit in ’89, but it has become a joke between myself and my best friend, whose birthday is the day after mine, that we more often than not get temps in the ’60s and we have gone a number of places around the NW to celebrate. Our fingers are crossed that the weather will be fair for our birthdays on the Peninsula this year, but we will have a grand time even if it blows.