'BE MINE,'\JUST 'SAY YES'.

Byline: PHIL ROSENTHAL 

For a lot of us, our first taste of romance came from a mouth-watering little sweet heart that offered sentiments we were too young to understand and all too eager to swallow.

A kiss may be just a kiss, but every Valentine's Day is a reminder that conversation heart candies are forever.

"The response we get is overwhelming," said New England Confectionary Co. marketing director Walter Marshall, whose office in Cambridge, Mass., is always swamped with calls and letters this time of year. "People love us."

Necco's conversation hearts, which come in both the -1/2-inch and -3/4-inch variety, not only are still around after nearly a century, they are more or less the same as you remember from grade school - yellow, green, orange, purple, white and pink with "Cutie Pie," "My Love" and "Be True" among the 125 different sayings printed on them.

The hearts are made of the same stuff as Necco's namesake wafer candies, and the company's factories in Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Louisiana produce up to 100,000 pounds of the hearts a day at peak capacity. Marshall estimates an annual output of 8 billion hearts.

There are a handful of companies that make the conversation hearts, but Necco has been doing it since 1902 and is the market leader. Oliver P. Chase, who founded the company 149 years ago, had a brother named Daniel, who first thought to put writing on candy in the 1860s. His original candies offered archaic slogans such as, "Married in pink, you'll take the drink." "That was pretty hot stuff back then," Marshall said.

By the turn of the century, advances made it easier to churn out candies in different shapes, enabling the company to take Daniel's idea to hearts. Some of the holdover messages from the early days are "Be Mine," "Be Good," "My Man," "My Gal" and the always popular "Say Yes."

Not every phrase has such timeless charm. "Dig It" was retired a year ago. "Cha Cha," "Hot Dog," "Crazy," "Say Bud," "Solid" and "Far Out" also have been phased out recently.

A cursory look at the current crop of tell-tale hearts would seem to indicate "My Pad," "Neat" and "10" are doomed, though each has a certain nostalgic appeal. At Marshall's suggestion, "Fax Me" has been added this year. People write in with ideas all the time. Most are suitable neither for candy hearts nor a family newspaper.

Conversation hearts have their own form of haiku. The small hearts have room for just two words of four letters. The big ones accommodate two words of six.

One of their charms is their clear-eyed view of romance. Plenty say "Love Me," "Hug Me," "U R Good" and "Call Me." But a few say "No Love," "No Way," "Go Away" and "Good Bye."

Ironically, Valentine's Day is a slow time in the conversation heart business. Necco, which is also known for its Mary Jane candies, will start cranking out next year's supply in March. It takes nearly 11 months to meet the demand each year for the six weeks leading up to Feb. 14.

"They're good for five to seven years," Marshall said of the candies. "They keep their flavor. Adm. Byrd took (Necco wafers) to the pole with him. They're indestructible."

If only the sentiments - and the romance they aim to engender - were always as durable.

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Photo no caption (Necco's conversation hearts - FAX ME)