Valentines Day and a Box Social Grade 2 Miss Betty Jean Anderson (teacher)
Georgetown, Ontario, Canada Around February 14, 1960 Chapel Street School
Valentine’s Day coming up…frenetic activity.
Who would get the most cards? Popularity depended on volume.
Messages: Be mine….You’re so sweet.
Corny puns: Some Bunny Loves You (accompanied by a drawing of a rabbit).
A release of sublimated childhood sexuality.
A miserable day for the boy known as “Lardpile,”
Who chomped all day on those cinnamon red hot candy hearts,
Waiting for the cards that seldom came.
Valentine’s Day tradition in our school: the Box Social.
The girls prepared and decorated a basket or box containing a full lunch.
In our school, the boxes weren’t auctioned to the highest bidder.
Instead, there was a “lucky” or “unlucky” draw.
A lunch was put forward; a boy’s name was drawn from a hat
And the girl and boy were paired for an extended lunch,
Their desks drawn close together for intimacy and profound conversation.
Dread, not Britannia, ruled the classroom waves.
There was a black list on both sides of the gender divide.
Who would get the girl with cooties?
Who would be stuck with “Lardpile”?
Debbie Wilson drew my name.
I imagined her face collapsing like a crushed patent leather glove squeezed by an invisible malevolent hand.
A tremor and a cascade of tittering reverberated through the classroom.
Then an explosion of scorn and relief.
Debbie Wilson – or Mrs. Wilson – had prepared white bread egg-salad sandwiches,
Cheese Whiz celery sticks, and homemade butterscotch chip cookies.
I was mortified by the close quarters and the bizarre consumption ritual,
Which obviously portended so much.
Too much for a small pudgy anxious boy to bear.
I peed on my seat,
Ruining Miss Betty Jean Anderson’s Box Social in February 1960.
In the class photo, I’m third from the left in the middle row.
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Can’t remember you but this is Grade Three. I’m fifth from the left front row I’m the Little blonde with crossed legs. Marlene Herrmann. George Stoddart tall guy back row. Had my boxed lunch with him in Grade 6. Mr. Homer was the teacher.
If you skipped grade five (Miss Stull), we were only in grades two and three together.
Hi Marlene,
Delighted to read your comment and your correction. I’ve been meaning to update this entry because I realized that the photo was of a group one year ahead of mine at the time.
I skipped Grade 5 and ended up with this group; that’s where the confusion arose. Memory plays tricks.
I remember you very well!
We were no doubt in the same class with Mr. Homer and Mrs. Evans. I don’t remember Mr. Homer doing the box social thing.
My memorable box social was with Miss Anderson in Grade 2.
Did you have Miss Hunt in Grade 3?
Cheers!
Robert
I fixed the post, including the appropriate photo.
Thanks for reading this and for the reminder.
Cheers!
Robert