Museum of Me: February 2022

A new month . . . means a new Museum of Me exhibit.

This month's exhibit is all about . . . Valentine's Day. Which is actually not my most favorite "holiday" on the calendar. But I did enjoy it is a child (because a classroom party - complete with Valentine mailboxes, cupcakes, and a rousing game of Heads-Up-7-Up - was a Very Big Deal for this 1960s child).

C'mon in.
Maybe there'll be chocolate. . . 

====

(1967-me thought Valentine's Day was fun!) (That cowlick, though.)

When I was a kid, Valentine's Day was just that - fun, and not a big deal at all. We had a classroom party, of course, with treats and Valentines for our classmates. I slaved over my Valentines in the days leading up to the party, trying to match up the Just Right Valentine for each kid in my class. I signed every one carefully, with a red pen if I could find one. I took it all Very Seriously! (You didn't want to send the wrong message, y'know?) And I never opened the cards delivered to my mailbox until I got home, where I could do it in private. (In case someone sent ME a message, of course.)

It was all very simple. And completely uncomplicated.

The best part of Valentine's Day, though? 
Oh, that was Cupid . . . visiting our house and turning our milk pink on Valentine's Day!

What?
Didn't this happen at your house?

Here's the story.

One year (I think I was probably in first grade; early elementary school at any rate), I opened the refrigerator and pulled out the bottle of milk for my breakfast cereal (because back then we had bottles of milk delivered to our house a couple of times a week) . . . and IT WAS PINK!

Bright pink. The whole bottle. I was absoluted gobsmacked! 

Mom! Mom! Something is wrong with the milk!!! It's PINK!!!
My mom came running to check it out, (apparently) just as mystified as I was.

I thought something magical had happened, for sure! And then my mom explained that MAYBE, just maybe . . . those mischievous Valentine Cupids had come in the night and shot their arrows into our milk, turning it pink. And weren't we lucky?

I fell for it, because . . . of course I did! It was special and magical and such a surprise.

The Cupids continued to visit our house each Valentine's Day throughout my elementary years, turning the milk in our refrigerator pink. 

Despite it being pink (looking teasingly strawberry-like), the milk tasted like plain old regular milk . . . but I knew it was laced with LOVE!

====

Thanks for visiting The Museum of Me. Watch for new exhibits . . . on the 2nd Friday of each month.

And if you're a blogger and you'd like to create a Museum of Me along with me on your own blog, let me know. I'll send you my "exhibit schedule" (a list of my prompts) and we can talk about ourselves together. 

 

 

 

Comments

[Kat]

I think I would have loved your mom! Oh my... this warms my heart!

Valentine's was not a thing in my house either... and sadly, we did not have any Roaming Cupid's shooting arrows at our milk. Sigh.

[Vera]

Such fun Kym! I do remember those classroom parties complete with cupcakes or cookies and Valentines from every classmate. I, too, tended to open mine at home (in private). Such a flood of memories!! We did not have pink milk at our house (unless we put in Nestles Quick Strawberry!!) Have a wonderful weekend!

[Bonny]

Your mother was so creative! My father gave my mother chocolate and a card on Valentine's Day, and that was about all that happened in our house on the day. I wish I had thought of something like this with my kids but I just made heart-shaped meatloaves. Not quite as magical as Valentine Cupids and pink milk!

[Vicki]

Aw, that's so sweet! I remember being very into decorating the box into which the Valentines were deposited.

[Margene]

That was a lovely surprise for your mother to pull off! We had Nestles Quick Strawberry mix and we loved it! It was my favorite, although you couldn't go wrong with the chocolate! I was a big fan of VD cards and I sent them to friends off and on through the years. Cute little VD cards are not so easy to find anymore. Yesterday we bought heart shaped cookies from my favorite baker. I weekend is going to be sweet!

[Debbie]

I love how your mother surprised you with that milk! I thought she used the Nestle Quick Strawberrry mix! I have good memories of writing out my Valentines for classmates and decorating a box to collect my cards. We were always give a list of everyone in our class because if we brought Valentines, we had to have one for everyone!

[Dee]

That is so cute.

No, we never had pink milk at our house. I remember we did get a Valentine's card from mom and dad and had the same sort of party at school. We had to bring in a decorated shoe box to get put our cards in.

[kim in oregon]

What a clever idea for the milk! We did the valentines-in-the-shoebox thing but I don't remember much beyond that as celebrations!

[sustainablemum]

I love your pink milk story. We used to have milk delivered in glass bottles too, you still can round here there has been a bit of resurgence on that in recent years.

Reading about pink milk reminds me of books I used to read to my children when they were little, they had a character who liked drinking pink milk!

[Patty]

Your mom was so good at these things! <3 But I’m with you - not the biggest fan of Valentines Day.

[Mary]

Your mom gets all my hearts! Happy Valentines Day!

[Helen Mathey-Horn]

Love that pink milk. My mom tried to do a 'green' meal for St Patrick's one year, but not everything turned out an appetizing green and the different greens were a little hard to take, lol.

[Carole]

I love that your mom created that bit of magic for you and that the memory of it has stayed with you for your whole life.

[kathy b]

PINK MI1k is the cutest idea ever for heart day! YOU were an adorab1e kid

[Jane]

How fun to have the milk be magically pink. I like Valentine's Day at school. We each decorated shoe boxes or made envelopes to hang from our desks and handed out Valentines. Like you, I worked hard at choosing just the right card from the package for the right classmate. My husband used to make heart pancakes for our two children.