This writer also talked about the process of giving valentines in her day: "In those early days, when dropping valentines, great secrecy was used so as not to let it be known who the sender was. The custom of dropping them was very much different from the present-day mode of sending or giving them. They would place the valentine on the doorstep and then slam or kick the door and run and hide around the corner of the house or in some dark place where they could not be seen (there were no electric lights in those days) and wait until the door was opened and the valentines taken into the house. Then they would go on to the next place and repeat the procedure.

"Then came the 'jerk' valentine, where after the foregoing procedure was carried out and the door was opened to pick up the valentine, the one hiding would pull the string attached to the valentine and run off with it to repeat it at some other house. The youngster expecting a valentine would be greatly disappointed."

Nowadays the giving of valentines by kids has become politically correct, notes Anderson, "everyone gives them to everyone else." But when he was young, it was different. Valentines were a sign of popularity. "Valentines went mostly to the girls, and it was catastrophic if they didn't get any."

What about Anderson? "Oh," he says with a twinkle in his eye, "I got a few."

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