Since I was the first child, Mom kept a scrapbook with all the cards my parents received when I was born - first Christmas cards and first birthday cards. Inside the cover of the scrapbook was a 9-by-12-inch envelope.
On the front of the envelope, written in pencil exhibiting excellent penmanship for a third-grader, was "Kenneth B." My mother had written on the back, "3rd grade."
I am so thankful everything had value to Mom. In my younger days, I would not have kept so much stuff. Memories are worth saving. From 1949 to 1998 this envelope traveled 12,000 miles with my parents.
The envelope has protected seven 1949 Valentine's Day cards handmade by one of my third-grade classmates at O'Keefe Elementary School, Brenda C.
The first card had the words, "Kiss and Hug" printed between a "B" and "K." Inside the card, in her best penmanship, Brenda wrote, "Dear Kenneth B, You are the nicest boy in the room. Love, Brenda C." The outside of the next card was colored in red crayon in the shape of a heart with the message inside, "Dear Kenneth B, I love you. Do you love me? Answer back yes or no. Love, Brenda." In the third card she wrote, "Dear Kenneth, I love you. I want to kiss and hug you. Brenda C."
In each of the seven Valentine's Day cards she made, Brenda wrote she loved me. Reflecting on what has transpired over the past six decades; Brenda was a young woman way ahead of her time. She was confident with herself before the women's liberation movement, the burning of bras and assertion workshops.
Being a month and a half away from an eighth birthday, I was incapable of sensing how Brenda was flattering as she gave her love to me. She was strongly attracted to me at that moment in time.
Thanks Brenda, it is always nice to have a beautiful young woman make an old man's day.
Ken Beaton
Carson City