A Country Boy’s take on the valentine
Valentine’s Day is Tuesday. There is still time to choose the perfect card, buy a box of candy and make those reservations. Over his long career with
The Oklahoman, Roy P. Stewart was a reporter, editor, Washington correspondent, feature writer and columnist.
In his “Country Boy” column Stewart shared his views on many subjects, including this history of the Valentine’s Day card published on Feb. 11, 1964.
“Even the reference works seem unable to agree on how Saint Valentine’s Day began — and why — but it’s a great day for the candy, flower and greeting card vendors.
“There were two saints in legendary history concerning February 14 but a connection between them and observance of this day is hard to find. A greeting card maker solves that by having a doomed priest sending his jailer’s daughter a card signed ‘from your Valentine.’
“It is known that a priest met a martyr’s death by trying to convert the Emperor Claudius II and his family, and that a bishop also became a martyr on February 14. Both were named Valentine.
“There’s hardly a person around who, at the sound of a sentimental sigh, hasn’t splurged for one of those large, fancy frilly creations. At least once.
“Those lacy ones are sort of inherited from our British cousins. In Elizabethan times there were even professional writers, gushing with sentiment at a penny a verse, for some lovesick swain.
“Cupid got in the act then, as now, with the sentimental type, although blue birds are a venerable part of valentines. Some of that goes back to one belief that hey brought happiness. In the middle ages folks believed that birds mated on February 14.
“Charles, duke of Orleans wrote the oldest valentine now preserved, on February 15, 1415. It is in the British Museum. Charles had a bit of time on his hands at the time — being a prisoner in the Tower of London.
“Chaucer mentioned valentines, which certainly goes back a far piece. The Bard of Avon had Ophelia telling Hamlet: ‘Good morrow, ‘til St. Valentine’s Day; all in the morn betime, and I a maid at your window to be your valentine.’ If we recall it properly, Hamlet’s mood wasn’t helped any.
“Samuel Pepys, who seemed to put down more words than most anyone, mentioned in his famous diary on Feb. 14, 1667, that buttering up his wife with a valentine cost him five pounds. Sterling, that is ... A $25 splurge in those days must have been a dilly.
“The first valentine came to the United States from England in 1684, one source claims, and ever since the post office department has thought well of this custom — except when odd sizes foul up the machinery and stamps have to be hand-canceled.
“If you want to really puzzle someone, send a valentine written in invisible ink. Or send a note saying ‘disregard the valentine I sent you — I’ve changed my mind.’ Since you didn’t send the first one, that will really fool ‘em.”
Happy Valentine’s Day.