If you are anywhere close to my age, you probably remember the Valentine "mailbox" in the classroom where you would deposit your Valentine cards just before the party.

These memories came flooding back when I discovered from a former classmate that several of us were immortalized in a book by another classmate... Bob Wadin.
Bob and I were in school together beginning in kindergarten.
He has become somewhat of a quirky fella... he writes short stories, is an avid reader, owns a plantation and grows sunflowers and soybeans,
mostly rides his bike but takes the car out once a week for a trip to Tupolo, has no tv and no computer, and writes all of his books in longhand before being published.

And it was in this book that he told a tense story about Paulie, and Paulie's obsession with me on Valentine's Day.
The first names are the same but the last names in the book he has changed to rhyme with the original last names.
Here is the excerpt where I entered the picture, so to speak:

Paulie was in love with Fay Holts so he felt a good deal of the time like a frog who was in love with a princess.
"Fay," said Paulie to himself. Sometimes he just liked to say the name over and over like it was a magic word.
Fay took ballet lesssons because her mother said that it was good for girls and gave them poise. One day at assembly she had danced Thumbelina for the entire school.
She had twirled and skipped and pirouetted like some good fairy hopped up on speed and had nearly catapulted herself out of a plate glass window.
Paulie knew he would never forget it."

The cards in this photo are obviously contemporary and the lovely "quilted heart" was made by my granddaughter, Alaina.

A special thank-you to my friend and former classmate Tom, who alerted me to Bob's books and stories!