Innocent Hearts

By the time you read this, tomorrow will be Valentine's Day. A day most likely abhorred by more than appreciated. I have never had qualms about VDay even though I have never once had a "Valentine" to share it with. In my world it has always meant it is exactly one week until my birthday, and as a kid that's the best feeling in the world. I never noticed whether I had gotten a Valentine from every boy in the class, or what the candy hearts said (it's a good thing "better luck next time" was never available). Even as an adult, I have maintained the whimsy that I assigned to the day as a child - I still get those kids Valentines and give them to all my friends (yours is in the mail).

This year I decided that a wonderful addition to the Pirates of the Caribbean Valentines Cards I got (for about 3 bucks at Rite Aid...hey it's the thought that counts!) would be some heart stickers. Not having bought sheets of stickers in a while, I assumed they would be readily available; a pack of regular heart stickers. Nothing fancy, just plain red hearts. A few days before Valentine's Day...sounds easy right?

Well, the search began on Feb 11th and 2 days later there are still not stickers to be found. Places I looked: Utrecht (Cap Hill); Rite Aid (Cap Hill); Urban Outfitters (you never know: Cap Hill); random card shop (with TONS of Valentines stuff in the window: Pioneer Square) "you're the third person to come in and ask...no we don't have any"; Bartell's Drug (5th and Virginia); the Hallmark Store (4th Ave Downtown); Borders (Downtown); Rite Aid (Downtown). How can NO WHERE carry heart stickers?! of ANY kind - fancy, plain, whatever?! At this point it has become a mission of curiosity (notice a pattern?) more than anything - why does no one have heart stickers? Is there ANYWHERE to buy them other than a specialty store of some kind?

This heart sticker issue has made me wonder: Do kids still have sticker books? As a child I can remember getting stickers to put in my sticker book - I would specifically save my allowance to go buy the fancy stickers at The Write Impression (a stationary story where I grew up) - they had everything there. I mean, everything - things so wonderful that a sheet of red hearts would have seemed too mundane to even consider. Yet twenty years later that's what I wish I could attain. Perhaps kids today have access to so many forms of entertainment that sticker books for fifty-cent stickers is so passé...why would you collect stickers when you can play Guitar Hero?

There was something satisfying to save up for that more expensive (i.e. $2) sticker - and to finally choose which one you wanted (sunglasses collection or shoe collection?) and then when it was finally added with such permanency to your sticker book you would return to it and happily look at same said stickers again and again. (Seriously? I did this?) - is there anything that offers a parallel satisfaction to kids today? The acts had no practical value other than perhaps the encouragement of budgeting, yet were something we would all obsess over and share with each other and show off to one and other. Do kids do anything like this today? I'm honestly curious - and for the joy of innocence deserved by the next generation I hope there is a positive answer out there. Maybe I'll find it wherever they keep the heart stickers.

Song of the Day: Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes