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Let me call you sweetheart this Valentine's Day
By Deborah Taylor-Hollis
Every Valentine's Day, my job in our house is to perpetuate the holiday spirit and decorate in pinks, whites and reds. My job is to remind everyone that the big day is coming. My job is to remain stoic no matter what kind of love offering pops out of the bright box, including painted rocks, scribbled circles and dancing gorillas.
My job is also to pick out Valentine's cards for the men in my family to send to everyone they feel is appropriate, including class Valentines.
Having a boy means convincing the gentleman that Valentines are fun, lighthearted things, and that monster trucks do not fall into this category. I have, during the last five years of school, found Scooby Doo, Pokemon, Thomas the Tank Engine, and Star Wars to be within the bounds of good taste. But only if they are accompanied by the traditional sweet treat of a heart.
The box of hearts--those little sweet hard-sugar delights with sayings on them--come out every year and immediately sweep me back in time to when I would be elevated to earthly heights if a boy gave me one with "Kiss me" on it (never happened), and devastated to get one that read "Be Good" (derogatory sayings have never been allowed, but we all knew when we had been dismissed).
The Necco Company website (www.necco.com) tells more than any living human being would ever want to know about those little gems of childhood. "The concept of Conversation 'Motto' Hearts dates back to the late 1860s when printed sayings on colored paper were placed in 'Cockles,' small crisp candies formed in the shape of a scalloped shell. Daniel Chase, brother of Oliver Chase, who founded NECCO in 1847, invented the process, which allows the sayings to be printed directly on the candy," states its multi-page site. The heart shapes arrived in 1866.
I was amazed to learn that those little hearts--and the lozenge shaped wafers that also share the same recipe and taste--have been around longer than any other candy manufacturer in America. The Chase brothers were seriously into candy. Oliver invented the first American candy machine, invented a modern sugar pulverizer, and has a tradition of conglomeration dating back to 1901, when Necco was formed from three companies. They eventually bought Clark Bars--founded in 1881--and the Miller Company, creators of Mary Jane bars (and founded in Paul Revere's Boston home). Necco made Boston--and eventually the state of Massachusetts--the largest manufacturers of candy in the United States at the time. Necco wafers moved in 1927 into its present plant near the Charles River and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is the largest factory in the world (seven stories high) with its entire space devoted to the manufacturing of candy. The 16-inch reinforced concrete floors made it the perfect place for an air raid shelter during World War II, and the original equipment--or exact replicas of it--are still used more than 100 years later to keep up with American candy tastes. The company has been around so long that it's surrounded by MIT--after all, it donated most of the land that MIT needed when the university was founded.
In 1938 the little hearts company created the first true molded chocolate bar having four distinctly different centers encased in a chocolate covering, and now also owns Haviland chocolates (formerly Borden company, of Elsie the cow fame) and Candy House Buttons.
I contemplated most of this information as I stood in line with 25 of the little red and white boxes with the cellophane heart window. I know that they make 8 billion sweethearts a year, most of which are sold during the six-week period between Jan. 1 and Valentine's Day, all of which are eaten by already over hyper 3- to 10-year-olds. My son considers them to be in the same group as jelly beans, peanuts and raisins, meaning they need to be eaten by the handful.
The hearts have always been used to send a loved one a message and some of the original sayings still used today include "Be Mine," "Be Good," "Be True," "My Man," "Kiss Me," and "Sweet Talk." My son finds these unacceptable, and wants to give candy with messages such as "No Girls," "Homework Stinks" and "Yuck Dead Bugs."
I will remain stoic no matter what my boy thinks about romantic notions on Valentine's Day. I know that, for him, making a multicolored Playdough vomit or creating a dinosaur devouring a small village of screaming natives is a sincere tribute to how much he loves me. That, and eating all my candy as well as his own.
Deborah's fascination with all sugary things can be discussed with her at DTHollis@svcn.com.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
