February Was A Special Month

Across the Fence #325

When I was in grade school, attending a one-room country school, February was always a special month. A glance at the February calendar shows four important events; Groundhog Day on the 2nd, Lincoln’s birthday on the 12th, Valentine’s Day on the 14th, and Washington’s birthday on the 22nd. It also lists President’s Day on Monday the 21st, but I don’t count that one. That’s a 3-day weekend for federal employees and doesn’t affect me, except that I don’t find any junk mail and bills in my mailbox that day. I don’t remember that we paid much attention to Groundhog Day when I was a kid, but some of my friends may remember otherwise. If so, let me know.

It seems like we have a bunch of 3-day holidays now that we never had when I was young. It wouldn’t have made much difference because all the farm families had seven-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year jobs. Holidays didn’t mean much, when you still had to work.

Lincoln and Washington’s birthdays probably don’t mean much unless you’re in the AARP card-carrying age bracket. I remember their birthdays as being special when I was in grade school. I think every school had a framed picture of Washington and Lincoln hanging on the front wall of the school. I know we did at Smith School.

I also remember cutting out black silhouettes of them. I don’t remember what we did with all those cutouts, but making them helped us become more familiar with them and what they had done for our country. We also learned that Washington told the truth after he had cut down the cherry tree. I don’t know if that was a true story or just part of folklore, but it was a good story with a moral for us young kids — never tell a lie.

We learned that Lincoln was born in a log cabin, was very poor, and would walk many miles to borrow a book and read it by the light from the fireplace because he had a thirst for knowledge. It didn’t occur to me at the time, that a lot of people were born in log cabins during that period. What registered was that even a poor boy from the country could grow up to be president. Those were valuable lessons for us young kids to learn.

I suspect that in this technology age, those qualities don’t impress kids today as much as they impressed us back in the 50s, the 1950s—not the 1850s. When I was in school, their birthdays were important events each year. One was considered the father of our country and the other had saved the Union and freed the slaves. Those are monumental events in the history of our country.

Sandwiched between their birthdays was Valentine’s Day. That was a day of anticipation and suspense. Yes, suspense, as we anxiously looked through the valentines that had been dropped into our hand-decorated box, to see what message would be found on the cards from certain people. At least we didn’t have to suffer like poor Charlie Brown each year as he went to the mailbox and always found it empty. Our teachers made sure that each student had a card for each student in school. In our case, that meant around twenty cards each year.

Sometimes we made the valentines that we gave to each other, although we must have given store-bought cards some years, because I remember my mother buying a package of the cutout cards for David and me to hand out. Janet and Arden, my younger sister and brother, weren’t in school yet when I was at Smith. I imagine we had to pick out and sign the card for each person, but I don’t remember. Maybe Valentine’s Day was such a traumatic time for me that I’ve shut it out of my memory bank! I would think that I picked out or made a special card for certain girls.

Corrine Fredrickson, my teacher at Smith for three years, said “Valentine’s Day was a day when the mothers came to school in the afternoon! You kids helped me serve them coffee and a treat, so for once, they could just come, enjoy themselves, and not have to bring something for a treat. Valentine’s Day meant ‘spring is nearly here!’ The hours of daylight were getting longer. It was a delightful time of year! Kids made most of the valentines that they gave to each other. As kids looked at their cards, the smiles on some faces could tell which boy or girl was special to them, but no one was mean, and nobody sent nasty valentines; nobody was left out.”

Those were special times when we attended our one-room country school, and February was a special month, even though it was the shortest month. We realized when we had our reunion last summer that we were like one big family in those small schools. I have many good memories from those days, and I credit that to the wonderful people and neighbors that I went to school with.

February—when we learned about a rodent predicting how much longer winter would be; honesty from George Washington, that a poor kid can become president from Abe Lincoln; and expressing feelings from our heart on Valentine’s Day. February is truly a special month.