I guess it wasn't this type of thong?
We used to call flip flops "thongs"
I'm Canadian too and I remember it being a day where we all exchanged little Valentine's cards but it was all pretty innocent.
At the risk of sounding like a fossil here - yup - some kids are growing up way too fast!
You don't sound like a fossil....unless I'm a fossil too...which I guess I pretty much am now that I think about it, but yeah kids in early grades nowadays seem to be under a lot more pressure to do a lot of things that I hadn't even considered in 5th or 6th grade. Holding hands with a girl in 5th or 6th grade was the equivalent nowadays of shacking up with someone for the weekend. Everyone in the school knew about it within half an hour...