Happy Valentine's Day!

1909

Valentine greetings may be older than you think. In the Middle Ages lovers would sing or say Valentine's greetings, and Geoffrey Chaucer's circle encouraged it. Written ones began appearing in the 1400's, and paper valentines, more like we know them, in the 1500's. One such early valentine is on display in the British Museum.

1875

Paper valentines were exchanged in Europe, instead of gifts and became extremely popular in England. Later gifts, especially flowers or candy, were included. In the 1800's, factories began making

valentines. At first, black and white pictures were hand painted by the workers, but by the middle of the century, lace, ribbon, and other embellishments

were added to make them fancier. Toward the end of the 1800's,

they were being completely manufactured by machines. In America, Norcross became one of the first companies to produce valentines at the turn of the century. When school children also began exchanging valentines, as well as family members, the valentine card industry really took off.

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Friday the 13th

If you've looked at the calendar, you know that today is Friday, the Thirteenth. I don't believe in superstitions, but I find their history and folk culture interesting. Did you ever wonder how this day came to be thought of as unlucky? There's actually no evidence of it until the 1800's, but the background was formed much earlier.

Rossini

According to Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales, Friday was considered a bad day to start a trip or a new project since at least the 1400's. Another literary reference comes in 1869 from a biography by Henry Sutherland Edwards. He wrote about Rossini, who died on Friday, the 13th. Speaking of Rossini, Edwards writes, "He was surrounded  to the last by admiring friends; and if it be true that, like so many Italians, he regarded Fridays as an unlucky day and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday 13th of November he passed away." So, apparently by this time, some saw both Fridays and the number 13 as unlucky. I guess putting the two together made a double whammy.

Some people have also tried to link Friday, the 13th, with Christ. They say there were 13 people at the Last Supper, 12 disciples and Jesus. Then, Jesus was crucified on the next day, which was a Friday. I guess if you're looking to find connections, it not hard to make them.

Thomas W. Lawson

Perhaps a better place to look is at Thomas W. Lawson's novel, Friday the Thirteenth, published in 1907. More modern examples are John J. Robinson's Born in Blood from 1989 and Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code from 2003. Of course, there have been movies also.

At one time, people often tried to avoid the number 13, and a few still do. For years, high-rise buildings would not number a floor, an apartment, or a room thirteen. Instead, the numbers would go from twelve to fourteen. Even recently, the Stress Management Center

 and Phobia Institute in Asheville, NC, says an estimated 17 - 21 million people in the U.S. profess a fear of Friday, the 13th, making it the most feared reoccurring day in history. I've always found it, like any other day, can be a great day with the right attitude.

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Finley Law Office

The cute little building below is on the National Register of Historic Places. It sets at the corner of Broad Street and North Street, across from the side of the old county courthouse (now the Wilkes Heritage Museum) in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. In fact, the building is now owned by the museum, and they have it for rent.

The building is as small as it looks. It was built by Thomas Brown Finley as his law office around 1880. He later became a judge and lived from November 6, 1862, until April 3, 1942, in the Wilkesboro area, except for a short time he left Wilkes County for some of his education. Just by standing outside and looking at it, I got a sense of that long ago time, and, in my imagination, I was living the history.

The building itself is in the gothic style of architecture. I'm surprised that someone hasn't snatched it up to rent. Perhaps the limited square footage is the problem, but I could see something like a craft shop or a bookstore in it.

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Monopoly

Most of us grew up with the Monopoly board game. I certainly did, and my grandsons still like to play with me. This year, Monopoly turns 80. 

It was developed in the 1930's from the evolution of a board game known as "The Landlord's

Game." This older version was patented in 1904 but is believed to exist at least since 1902. Parker Brothers manufactured the first Monopoly games, but Hasbro now produces them.

To commemorate their 80th anniversary, Monopoly is being reproduced to resemble the 1930's version. In addition, the French division is putting real money in 80 of their boxes, and at least one will have all real money, equal to $23,498 or 20,580 euros (give or take some for fluctuating conversion rates).

To celebrate, maybe we should dust off our Monopoly boxes, or, as Hasbro would love, run out and buy another and set it up for a few games. The only problem I see for me is that it usually takes a long time to finish a game.

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Woodenware

In colonial times, households used more items made of wood than we do today. Craftsmen or family members carved special wooden objects, especially implements for the kitchen.

Very early on, there were no dishes, and a family ate from a common pot set in the middle of the table or from trenchers. A trencher was a long wooden dish,

resembling a dough tray or a small trough and was usually shared between at least two people. Sometimes, even cups were made from wood.

Rolling pins were also important and used to roll out things like biscuits, cookies, pie crusts, and certain pastries. Some of them even had designs carved

in them to give the treat a design. A marzipan was mainly used to make candies resembling flowers, birds, animals, or other shapes for the holidays.

Another common wooden implement was the butter mold. The first ones were just a stamp used to press a design in the lump of butter, but these became half-pound or pound wooden cups with a design in the bottom and a handle to push the butter out into a dish. Some were square and plain, but the most common were round. The designs were usually a sheaf of wheat or some type of bird.

Other items included things like bowls, spoons, stirring paddles, mortar and pestles, etc. Different sizes of wooden boxes and chests stored various and sundry items like candles, tea, and spices. Some of them were also carved with special designs, depending upon the skill of the maker.

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Apprentices

Boys, and sometimes girls, between the ages of 10 to 15 could become apprentices as part of their education in the colonies in a system similar to England's. This allowed a child to learn a skill. Boys could learn a trade, like cooper, printer, blacksmith, silversmith, carpenter, miller, etc. Girls usually learned domestic skills, like spinning, weaving, sewing, candle making, etc. 

Just like the indentured servant, an apprentice normally served for 4-7 years, although some served until age 21. At first, the children would clean up or run errands before beginning more formal instruction. While they were in the home, they were furnished room, board, and clothing. 

At the end of their apprenticeship, they'd be expected to produce a product or demonstrate their skill. If they were deemed ready, they would then become a journeyman, where they could work for pay and open their own

shop when they had enough money. Two famous men who started as apprentices were Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere. Franklin was apprenticed to  his older brother, James, who was a printer in Boston, and Paul Revere did his apprenticeship under a silversmith in Boston.

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When God Doesn't Make Sense

Let's face it, by human standards and reasoning, God doesn't always make sense. Did it make sense when He told Abraham to take all his possessions and leave the only home he knew to go to an undetermined place that God would eventually show him, and then to sacrifice his beloved son? Noah's neighbors sure didn't think it made sense for him to build a huge ship in the middle of the desert. Did it make sense when Joshua led the Israelites to just march around the city walls of Jericho for days in a row? Wouldn't you have felt rather foolish? Saul and his army certainly thought David was foolish to go up against the  

Philistine giant with nothing but a slingshot. Elijah confronted King Ahab, depended on birds to feed him, went into enemy territory to stay with an impoverished widow, and took on hundreds of Baal's prophets in the showdown on Mount Carmel. Jonah thought it was insane to go to the Assyrian capital and tell Israel's brutal enemies to straighten up or else. Time and time again, God has asked His people to do things that didn't seem reasonable.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9).

I felt some disapproval when I answered God's call to go to the southern Philippines and teach for a semester. Here I was, a single woman, traveling all alone half way around the world to a place I'd never been and knew no one. Several people tried to talk me out of it. What was I thinking! I was thinking that I would trust in my Lord, and I would be fine, and I was. It turned out to be one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5).

This is the key to living a fulfilled Christian life -- trust. We know that God sees everything and knows all. We don't. He also wants what's best for us, but, just as children don't always see that in their parents, we don't always understand either. If you will step out in faith to follow His will, however, you will never be disappointed, no matter the circumstances or how things turn out.

"Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation: There shall be no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh to thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy food against a stone" (Psalm 91:9-12).

Jonah is a good example of someone who belonged to God but tried to do things his own way. He couldn't understand why God would ask him to go to the heathen barbarians in Nineveh. He didn't think they deserved a second chance, and they were very likely to kill him. He ran in the opposite direction, and we know how that turned out. Doing things apart from God is always disastrous. 

"So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging" (Jonah 1:15).

Let's make up our minds today to trust God above all else, knowing we don't have to understand; we just need to obey. He is the only One worthy of all our trust. 

"The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour..." (2 Samuel 22:3).

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