This was the first Valentines Day that I was able to celebrate. I had a great idea for a Valentine’s box. It was going to be a mailbox. I had already started making it and showed it to my friend. The next day at school, my friend showed up at school with a mailbox Valentine box. It was, by the way, much better than the one I had been working on. It was made out of a real mailbox with a slot cut in the top. It was shiny metal with hearts on it and far better than the one I had been making out of posterboard.

Everyone was oohing and aahing over her box, and I very quickly realized that if I showed up with my box, it would look like I was copying HER instead of the other way around. I was heartbroken. I held it as long as I could, but as soon as Mom and Carol came home from work, I burst into tears trying to tell them the story of the Purloined Valentine Idea.

Carol helped me make this box. We called it “Laura’s Love Bouquet.” I ended up winning first place for originality. My friend didn’t win a prize at all. I’m still smiling about that. I can’t believe that was twenty-five years ago. I remember the betrayal so vividly that you would think that it was yesterday.