MY MOST EMBARRASSING VALENTINE MOMENT

We all know that young children have a basic and concrete understanding of life.  I was no different when I was a youngster. 

As a third-grader I was looking forward to the class Valentine’s Day Party.  I had taken home the list of children’s names, and Mom had taken me shopping for cards (I was sure my Looney Toons cards were the best!).  I had carefully signed my name to each and every card, and then I had laboriously written each of my class mates names of the envelopes.  I was all ready to go on The Day.  I placed all the cards in my bookbag and headed off to Keezletown Elementary School.

Our teacher had given us a clear instruction about how we were to take the valentines home that we would collect in class that day.  So, as I walked to school I looked carefully in the hedgerow until I found what I thought she was asking us to bring: a stick.  See, my family and I are from Ohio, and way back then we still didn’t know all of the lingo of the South.  One word I didn’t know was “poke” used as a synonym for “bag,” so when the teacher told us, “Now be sure to bring a poke to put your cards in,” I pictured poke a stick through the cards and carrying them home that way.

I was so embarrassed when I didn’t have a bag!  My teacher never could understand why I had brought a stick to class to carry home my cards!

I have never forgotten the other meaning of “poke” since that day!