Every year, on or
before February 14th, the school had a special party for each class. This special day, called Valentine’s Day, was
a time to express kind feelings to other students in the classroom, the
teacher, and the student body in the school. It was a time when young people acknowledged anyone
they especially cared about.
At Norwood Elementary
School, for this special day of the year in the classroom, there was much
preparation by the students, their homeroom mother, and members of the PTA
(Parent-Teacher Association.) One of the
first projects was the making of a Valentine box for each classroom. The box was usually plain old cardboard, about
the size of a student desktop. The
homeroom teacher usually asked for a volunteer to make the box, or it became
the responsibility of the homeroom mother. The box was usually decorated with crêpe paper
of different shades of colors in red and white. The creative ability of the person or persons
decorating the Valentine box typically determined how much time and effort went
into making the best one in the school. The
box was usually decorated with various sizes of Valentines made by individual
students. Some of the children were very
creative in making their Valentines with fringes and layers of other Valentines
on top of each other. Creative, cutout
shapes of decorations were placed all over the Valentine box.
There was usually a
contest held for the best Valentine box in the school. Each class was allowed to visit other classrooms,
and vote on their favorite box. The
boxes were full of students’ Valentine cards with their classmates’ names
written on them. Most students also signed
their own name on the Valentines they put in the box, but sometimes they wanted
to remain anonymous and make the person guess who the card was from. At the end of the day, the Valentine box in
each class was opened, and the Valentines were passed out to the recipients. Usually the most popular boy or girl in each
classroom received the most Valentines. However,
the homeroom teacher would make certain that each student in the class received
two or more Valentines.
The homeroom mother
usually furnished cake, ice cream, and Valentine candy for the class party. It was a happy time for students to enjoy the food
and express their feelings toward one another. It was not uncommon for a birthday party to be
announced by some member in the classroom. The party was usually held at their home, and
the whole procedure was repeated all over again for that special person.
One of those special
occasions was planned for Sharon’s birthday. Sharon was a patrol girl and one of the most
popular girls in the school. She was one
of those typical tomboy girls who excelled in sports, acrobatics, and just
about anything she participated in. Not
only was Sharon very pretty, but she had a charming personality and positive attitude.
Sharon had multiple talents in the
academic world, and she seemed to catch on to everything very quickly. But there was one thing about Sharon that she
kept a secret from most people. She was
very competitive and could not stand to lose at anything. Sharon took great delight in outrunning boys
in a foot race, beating them at their own skill games, and just plain being
smarter than boys in the classroom. Her
athletic body gave her the ability to walk on her hands, do back-bend,
one-handed cart wheels, and even do the splits! If that weren’t talent enough, she was the
best jacks player in school and one of the best marble shooters. It was almost impossible to beat her in
double-Dutch jump roping, dodge ball, 7-up, or hopscotch. The boys all liked Sharon very much, mainly because
they didn’t want to compete with her at anything.
So it was probably a
given that most of Sharon’s classmates would come to her birthday party. The party was going to be held at Sharon’s
house located on a horse ranch on the outskirts of town. It was customary to bring a small present or
gift to the birthday person. Lester,
Butch, Robert, Allan, and Ronald were all being driven to the party by Mrs.
Strawn, and were all bearing gifts. Letting the boys out at the front gate, she
told her son Robert to call when they were ready to be picked up. Sharon greeted them at the door, and invited them
in.
The party was held in
the living room in front of a gigantic fireplace. On top of the fireplace mantle was an
assortment of trophies, medals, and ribbons. Most of the trophies were for barrel racing
and clogging contests. There were also
several medals for academic achievement in science and math. After Butch had read the information on the
trophies, he asked Sharon, “What’s clogging?” Sharon blushed as she answered, “Clogging is a
form of folk dancing.” Within the next
few minutes, Judy, Marlene, Linda, and Joyce had arrived, along with George and
Bruce. Mary and Diane arrived just as
the party was getting ready to start. The
chocolate birthday cake was cut and served with ice cream topped with whipped
cream. Everyone played short games of
spin the bottle, seven minutes in heaven, and post office.
When all of the
formalities and games were over, it was time for Sharon to open her birthday
presents. Her mother and father gave her
a new English riding saddle for her favorite horse, Shania. George had taken a few pictures of her riding
on her barrel horse at the county fair. Once, Sharon had shared a secret with Judy on
the playground that she was very fond of George. One time when they were watching the boys
playing a game of scrub softball, George hit a home run! “He’s the one for me,” Sharon said with a big
smile on her face and a gleam in her eye.” George was one of the best athletes in the
school, and like Sharon, he was very competitive at everything.
When Sharon opened George’s
present, it was a beautiful white silk scarf!
Printed on it was a big red rose tree with dozens of roses. The card read, “The Rose of Sharon.” That happened to be the name of the particular
rose tree painted on the silk scarf.
From then on, Sharon and George were seen together almost everywhere.
The last present opened
was from Butch. He thought to himself, “I
hope Sharon likes my present. I think she is the prettiest girl in the school,
and she’s too good for George.” Butch’s
mind wandered on, “George brags about everything he does, and is so popular,
you would think he’d give some of us other guys a chance to be popular with the
girls.” When Sharon opened the present
from Butch, her eyes lit up, opening wide with excitement! She held the necklace up for everyone to see. It was a silver necklace with a gold
medallion hanging from the chain. Lester
turned to Robert and said, “That’s the necklace …” “I know,” said Robert, “and so do all the
other guys in the club.” “Oh, Butch,”
Sharon said. “It’s absolutely
beautiful!” Sharon then went over and
kissed Butch on the cheek.
That night, almost
everybody in the tree Fort club thought about that necklace. Butch had told Lester that the necklace gave
off tiny vibrations on his neck and gave him strange dreams at night. “I don’t know if I would have given that
necklace away,” said Lester. “Why not?”
asked Butch. “I hardly ever wear it.” The boys discussed the necklace, and many felt
that Butch was smitten by Sharon, and he would do anything to get on her good
side. The boys were right – Sharon and
Butch became close friends. Almost every
day after school, they would do their homework together in the school library
until Sharon’s mother came to pick her up in their candy-red Cadillac. Several times, Butch was seen carrying
Sharon’s books to the car for her. Sharon
loved the necklace so much that she wouldn’t take it off. She told Joyce that she even slept with the
necklace around her neck at night.
About a month later when
Sharon was talking to Judy, the subject of the necklace came up. Sharon said, “I love the necklace very much,
but sometimes it gives off vibrations that keep me awake at night.” Judy asked,” What do you mean?” “Oh, nothing,” said Sharon. “It’s just that sometimes I have really
strange dreams at night,” she went on.
Sure enough, that night, Sharon went to sleep as usual and began to
dream. She saw herself floating in the
air, looking inside the tree Fort. She
could see and hear the boys talking about her birthday party.
Meanwhile, an alien
spacecraft circled the Earth. “Sir,”
reported the CQ on duty for the night, “we have just received a signal from the
tracking device on Earth.” “Is
everything going as planned, Officer?” asked the Star Commander. “The signal is working loud and clear, but we
do have a problem, Sir.” “What kind of problem?”
“Well Sir, the tracking device is
transmitting strong signals, but they are coming from a different location, and
from a different gender than before.” “You
mean we’re getting a signal from a female specimen?” he asked. “It appears so, Sir.” “See if you can trace the signal and find the
location of the person who is in possession of the necklace. When you have that
information, I want a detailed report on my desk about her, the location, and
how she got possession of the necklace. And CQ, make that pronto!”
The Star Commander was
at his desk, reading the details of the report. “Name: Sharon. Gender: Female. Location: Horse farm. Education: Sixth-grade honor student at
Norwood Elementary School. History: A
superb species of the female race. Age: 12
years on Earth. Characteristics: Unusual
athletic abilities, above-average cognitive skills, advanced recall memory, and
high IQ. Conclusion: Great candidate for
tracking and analyzing brain synapse used in decoding messages. Recommendations: Based on intelligence
gathered, it is the opinion of the committee that we continue constant monitoring
of this earthling, and measure susceptibility to subliminal training in her
dreams.” The Star Commander pushed the
intercom button. “CQ, I want an
immediate chronological study on everything that this young woman does. I want
to know where she goes, whom she sees, and everything about her friends. In
short, I want her monitored every second! Is that understood?” “Yes Sir,” agreed the CQ. “How long would you like this surveillance to
continue, Sir?” “Until I tell you to
stop!”
(Part One of story by George F. Kohn, author of
Holiday Favorites series available on Amazon.com)
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