The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1937-02-05
WOMAN'S REALM
PARENTS
.RARENTS-
Your
Children
BY Olive Roberts Barton

The stores are filled with hearts
and flowers, cardboard cupids and
paper lace. Envelopes to fit are the
order Of the day. Stick pennies in
grimy hands are of to the shops and
the valentine makers are doing a
land Office business.
Who was st. Valentine? Nobody
quite knows, except that he was a
great and good monk who lived
about a thousand and half years
ago.
Did he hob-nob with Dan Gu
pid? Did he bless lovers? 1t seems
not. There was a mix-up In holidays,
1t seems, or rather, one was q holy
day and the next after 1t had some
thing to do with SWANS and their
ladies. Time does queer things.
When they dig up up fifteen hun
dredeyears from now archaeolo-
gists will probably say that Lincoln
was the patron saint Of lovers, or
Washington, because a few days on
the calendar makes little difference.
Adults Least Concerned
Another incongruous feature OF
this particular festival is that adults
on the average are as little con-
cerned with 1t as they are with
Whale Island. 1t is tots and the
green saplings Of humanity that go
in hard for these mementoes OF
the heart: the signs OF love, the
pleas of anguished desire and the
nervy suggestion that sweet Ange-
line throw herself over the balcony
rail and become So-andSos valen
tine.
The worst of it is that the per-
| fidious Youngsters send out these
billets d'amour by the dozen. 10y
atty is not one of their passions,
it would seem.
Yes. It's a perfectly swell day.
1t means no more than tipping
your hat or sticking out your ton
que. st. Valentine, and cupid-fid-
dlesticks! But it's swell day, just
the same.
And it's passion. A very real
one. 1t provides the same outlet for
theyoungsters that Christmas cards
do for us, Or the inevitable post
card we send home. The minute
value we've passed the first bend
in the road, the last lightship, we
begin to worry about the next port,
SO we can mail a card back to the
charming Briggses whom we haven't
seen for years and years and years.
Or maybe just Mrs. Smith whom we
forgot to return the cup of sugar to
before we left. just anybody with
an address.
Comic Cards Often Hurt
see that comics" are coming
back once again, now that the era
of good manners and neighborly
kindness Is receding. The comic al
ways hurts some feelings. Senders
mean them in fun. They are usu-
ally about as welcome as poison.
Please warn the fry to be careful.
Otherwise, I don't think there's
q bit of advice to be given. Ger
tainly there is nothing to worry
over. There's something SO satisfy
ing about red-tissue stage-sets that
open with the flip of finger; about
goo-goo eyes that roll by touching
a trick lever; odd little dogs, that
bark the strangest sentiments; Ra-
phaelic angels spearing the ice
man; and airplanes writing love
notes on thes ky. When eles can you
get hold Of such outrageously lovely
stuff?
Valentines day is placed SO nicely
between Christmas and Easter that
If the old st. v. hadn't lived at all,
we'd have to manufacture him or
someone like him, to give a f1llup to
dull old February, and jack things
up a bit.
Copyright, 1887 NEA Service Incl