The summer after my sophomore year in college, I got a job gluing bows, feathers and hearts onto greeting cards at the Hallmark Card factory in Topeka, Kansas. And it was sweltering - no air conditioning. And this was summer in Kansas, where triple digit temperatures were common!
And most of that summer, I was working on Valentine cards. They were cutesy and fuzzy and heartsy. There were cloyingly sweet verses and lots of flowers and all that. And at the end of the day, I'd be soaked in sweat and covered with bits of fuzz and glitter that probably are in my lungs till this day. Remember, this was a long time ago before it occurred to anyone to invent a face mask.
Under the watchful eye of the company time and motion engineer, we would glue on whatever was required at lightening speed - there were quotas to meet each hour, although I can't recall being paid a bonus for meeting or exceeding the magic number.
By the time I quit in early September, I'd had it with greeting cards - particularly those meant to be exchanged on February 14th!
So what's love got to do with it? For me, absolutely nothing. While I'm an otherwise good girlfriend, I'm a Valentine's Day Grinch!
Well, I might get Willy the Labradoodle a heart-shaped doggie cookie!
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