Be My Valentine

My Mother was a Kindergarten teacher and shared her love of books and silly songs with all of her children in her classroom and then when she had children of her own, to the four of us.  Long ago my Mom taught me a song about Valentine's Day and it went like this:

When you send a Valentine,
That's the time for fun!
Slip it underneath the door,
Ring the bell and run, run, run, run.
Ring the bell and run!

I was at her house yesterday rummaging around looking for a poem I wrote to her when I was a child.  I couldn't find it but I remember what it said:

Roses are red
Volets are blue.
Surger is sweat
and so are you!

Spelling has always been a issue for me! However, my Mom loved that poem and saved it for a very, very long time.  I was disappointed that I couldn't find the Valentine.  But I did find a box of pictures that were so great I had to share some of them.

Mom, far right, was out to dinner with friends in Columbia, South America. 

She told me this picture was taken at a going away dinner the "guys" all had for her and her girlfriends who spent a year teaching there.  Mom told me that the man sitting next to her asked her to marry him.  In fact, in many of the pictures I found there was a gentleman next to her and for most Mom said, "oh he asked me to marry him".  Hehehee

Mom looks like Jackie Kennedy, I think. She is so beautiful, it's no wonder all the men were smitten.

This was Valentine's Day! One cake said, "Anne (my Mother), Carol, Linda, Nancy - Will you be our 1959 Valentines? Signed Desperate!" Then on the other cake, there was a teacher figurine and two students and the sign said, "We knew you could be bad."

Clearly my mother and her girlfriends, along with the men they met in South America, were funny and knew how to have a  good time: pretty dresses, lots of smiles, drink glasses, cigarrettes and cigars.  I loved finding these old pictures and talking to Mom about them yesterday.

This last picture is of my Mom with her Kindergarten class in Columbia.  All the students only spoke Spanish and my mother spoke English.  She fondly recalls that time in her life when she spent a year and a half in South America teaching.