Come back in time with me to the 90's for a brief moment. In the 90's Trapper Keepers were all the rage and every girl wanted crimped hair, big bangs, and Lisa Frank accessories for school. Lisa Frank was basically a brand of stickers and other paper and pencil gear that was infused with bright psychedelic rainbows, and random animals like dolphins, whales, dogs, unicorns, kittens, and swirls of overall awesomeness. (Pretty sure Lisa Frank was on shrooms or high on Mary Jane all the time...)
I'm not sure what the mass appeal of Lisa Frank was now that I look back and realize how insanely weird it all was, but I was indeed obsessed just like every other school aged girl in the 90s. I was in the fifth grade when I found a pack of Lisa Frank Valentine's, I was stoked when I found ONE last pack of Lisa Frank Valentine's.
But when I got home to put my classmates' names on the cards, I grew embarrassed about all the super lovey dovey phrases about loving you or having a huge crush on you. I couldn't give these cards to ANY of the boys in my class! I didn't have a crush on ANY (okay, maybe one) of them! Part of the sheer mortification with all the loving phrases was that in our own home, love was more often expressed than verabalized and certainly never physically expressed. I barely hugged my parents, definitely never kissed them, and love was never spoken of, only shown through obedience and filial piety. I knew my parents loved me because we ate dinner together every night, we had dim sum with family every Saturday, they bought me clothes and paid for my piano lessons, speed reading classes, Chinese knotting classes, painting classes, reading comprehension classes, dance classes, etc., and they were my parents. Didn't all parents love their kids anyway?
I ended up tearing up all the Valentine's. And then I was left with another dilemma. It was no longer, what do I do about who receives which love infused Valentine (stupid Lisa Frank), but what do I bring to school? I certainly could NEVER ask my parents for another box of Valentine's - I knew too well that our frugal ways would prohibit me from not only ripping the existing and perfectly fine (but overly cheesy love overwhelming) Valentine's and even thinking of asking for another box was completely out of the question.
I had to think of another way.
My parents had a copy machine in their house. I eventually decided to copy an image of Jasmine and Aladdin from my Aladdin soundtrack - it was loving, they were on the flying carpet together. We only had white paper, so I copied and made use of the images by recopying ones already printed until I had thirty little paper Valentine's of Jasmine and Aladdin. I then sat there and colored every single one and wrote Happy Valentine's Day on the top. My life of being #notcraftyjustcheap officially began in 1993. I attached a little piece of candy to each card and called it a day.
Apparently, my cheap DIY paper cards made quite an impression. Years later, friends who laugh as they recalled receiving the weirdest Valentine's that year from me. I actually still remember receiving cards with phrases about love and being right for each other and suddenly I felt even more stupid for ripping up my initial Valentine's. Oh well, live and learn. I might have over thought it a bit too much, but love was just not something I was used to.
As I was helping my sons write their Valentine's cards, I also couldn't help but notice none of their cards said anything about love - only friendship. Maybe the times have changed? Or maybe their very "manly" Planes and Mickey Mouse cards were not as gender specifically girly Valentine's. Whatever the case, I chuckled a bit to myself as I remembered my fifth grade self at the copy machine, making my own cards because the ones I had were too love-ish. I think I even remember my dad coming in and asking me what I was doing. I couldn't tell him the truth so I just brushed it off as experimenting with the copy machine and my dad might have said something along the lines of don't waste too much paper or ink. ha ha...
Happy belated Valentine's Day everyone!
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