Belated Valentine Trip Down Memory Lane

While I was cleaning out a closet, I came across the heart-shaped box in this picture. It has survived for fifty years in one closet or another. I come from a sentimental heritage. When I was around ten years old, I saw this box in the local drugstore window. I thought it was the prettiest box of chocolates I had ever seen. I went home and collected the money in my bank and went back to purchase it as a Valentine gift for my mother and daddy. When I got to the drugstore and counted my money out to the pharmacist, I was about fifteen cents short. (If I remember correctly the box cost $3.85. That is a story in itself.) Seeing my disappointment, the pharmacist told me I could just owe him the fifteen cents. He put the candy in a sack, and I headed for the bus stop. Proudly I presented the candy to my parents. Then I told them that the nice man had let me have it even though I was fifteen cents short. After each of us enjoyed one piece of candy, Mother and I returned to the drugstore and paid the pharmacist the fifteen cents we owed him. Debt was not something my family accepted. The blue lacey box has survived the years and so has my reluctance to leave debts unpaid.