Sunday, February 2, 2025

Even MORE Vintage Valentines! (1950s, 1960s, & 1970s)

Just when I thought I had come to the end of my vintage Valentine collection, I found some more!  In the past, I have posted my mom's childhood Valentines, as well as some of my own.  The cards in this particular batch, belonged to both my mom and my dad.  We'll start with the newest ones, and work backwards in time.

My brother and I gave this one to my dad, in the early 1970s.  It was manufactured by "Laurel Cards."

My mom was an elementary school teacher, and one of her students gave her this Buzza Cardozo (of Anaheim, California) card, in the 1970s.

The card was from "Mark."  I wonder where Mark is, today?

Also from the 1970s (even though it has MCMLXIV printed on it), is this Winnie the Pooh Valentine that I gave to my mom.  I picked this one out of a box of Disney Valentines, which were also given out to my classmates on Valentine's Day.

Here's a card by Laurel®, from the 1960s.  This one was given to my dad, by my brother.


The card has three connected panels that unfold.

This 1960s Norcross card was given to my mom and dad, by my dad's sister.

And this Gibson card was given to my mom, by my dad.  I don't have an exact date for it, but they were married from 1960 to 1969, so it would have to be from the 1960s.


My mom gave this Norcross card to my dad.  Since they had met and dated for a year in Germany (during the time that my dad was in the Army, and my mom was working for the Army), this card was very appropriate.


Speaking of "cuckoos," while my mom was working in Berlin, she purchased four cuckoo clocks as gifts for various family members.  Sadly, as those family members have passed away, I have ended up with all of those cuckoo clocks.  :-(

Here's a Hallmark Valentine that my dad received while he was in the Army, and stationed in Berlin.  It was from his friend, "Lila Jean," and the envelope was postmarked, 1960.

This is another Hallmark Valentine, and was also sent to my Dad while he was stationed in Berlin.  This was from another friend, "Lois," and also had a postmark of 1960.


This American Greetings Corporation card was sent to my dad in 1959.  He was in the Army at that time, but he was at Fort Dix in New Jersey, and was going to be "shipping out" for Berlin in about four days.  The dark reddish areas are "flocked."

"Marty" (short for Martha), was a close friend of my dad's.  She, along with Lila Jean and Lois, were all in the same church youth group with my dad.

Marty also sent him this second Valentine (by Norcross), which was postmarked just one day after the previous one.  The faint diagonal lines are from where the glue on the envelope bled through to the card.

Here's another one from Lois, but from a different year.  There was no postmark on it.  The envelope only had my dad's name written on it, so I assume this was hand-delivered, and given to him prior to his going into the Army (pre-1959).  I'm not even sure that it was intended to be a Valentine, since it doesn't actually use the term, "Valentine."  However, with all of those hearts and the red and pink colors, I'm guessing it could have been.  The maker of this card was, Forget-Me-Not®.

When opened, this card is very long, and very skinny.

I hope everyone enjoyed another batch of vintage Valentine's cards.  I believe that I've now come to the end of the truly vintage ones.  I have some from the 1990s and later, but I hope those can't be considered "vintage" yet!  I'll have to go through them and see if there are any worth posting in the future.  Maybe in another 10 or 20 years, they will be interesting enough (and vintage enough) to post?  ;-)

****UPDATE****

I decided to share two more of my dad's photos, which he took during his time at McNair Barracks, in Berlin.  To see more of his vintage U.S. Army photos, check out my Veteran's Day post from November of 2024.  These pics were taken on the base, inside the All American Club (where my mom worked as a recreation director).  The club used to have many "theme nights," and this was "Blind Date" night.

These photos are from 1960, but I'm not 100 percent sure this event was for Valentine's Day.  Since the decorations include Cupid and a heart with an arrow through it, I will just assume that it was Valentine's Day.  I only know the name of one person in this photo.  The guy second from the right, was Private "Scruggs."  The young women were local German residents, which the club directors used to invite onto the base for some of the club's dances, shows, and theme nights.

This appears to be the only other photo that my dad took that night.  This soldier was a very good friend of his.

               

15 comments:

JB said...

A nice variety of cards, Tokyo! I think my favorite is the fold-out 'German' card with the cute play-on-words and illustrations. The most beautiful card is the Gibson card that your dad gave to your mother. All those bright 'Disney' colors (pink, purple, and blue) look nice on a Valentine card... not so much on a Castle. The flocked card is also nice.

I'll be holding my breath for the next 10 to 20 years, waiting for those 1990s cards to be posted! Thanks, Tokyo!

TokyoMagic! said...

JB, I think my favorites are also the first two you mentioned, along with the very first one in the post. For some reason, I like those odd 1970s graphics.

Well, the wait for more vintage Valentines might not be so long, after all. I found some more cards in a box of "baby" items. They were cards given to me for my very first Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas, birthday, etc. I could scan them and add them to this post, but I think I will save them for yet another "Vintage Valentines" post in the future!

Dean Finder said...

I really want to get that "For Mein Valentine" one printed poster-size for the Valentine's Day dinner at my German Club. The crowd would be divided between people who think it's hilarious an ones that think is blasphemous to have something in Germenglish.

TokyoMagic! said...

Dean Finder, let me know if you would like a higher resolution of that Valentine. I will gladly send it to you, and without the "Meet The World" watermark, too! Again, just let me know here in the comments and I'll give you my email address.

Major Pepperidge said...

Once again I am amazed at how you have saved everything! Or so it seems, anyway. I have a few old Valentines from my grandparents from when I was a kid, but that's it. The graphics on these cards is very comforting, reminding me of the sorts of cards I saw growing up. Norcross cards especially, not that they are my favorites necessarily, but it seems that they were everywhere, for decades.

Gosh, did I ever give a Valentine to one of my teachers? Maybe when we had to get cards for everyone in the class. My mom once gave me an apple to give to my teacher (maybe first grade) and even then I thought it was so corny that I threw the apple away rather than risk such embarrassment in front of the whole class.

Do you keep your cuckoo clocks in operational shape? In other words, are they wound and making various noises every hour? It might not be so bad during the day, but at 3 AM, maybe it would be a bit much.

I love those photos that your dad took, they remind me of when my mom was involved in the Officer's Club (when my dad was in the Navy), they'd decorate rooms for dances, I still remember her making giant paper corals and seaweed (it must have been an "Enchantment Under the Sea theme!), she glued tiny mirrors to the paper. I never saw the finished product of course, being a bratty little kid.

Thanks for sharing!

TokyoMagic! said...

Major, it's funny...for all of the many items I have saved, I can think of a few that I got rid of, and am now kicking myself for doing that! But I really have nothing to complain about, or anything that I should regret, because I know I probably have more saved items from my childhood, than most people do.

I remember the boxed Valentines for passing out at school, always came with just one that was addressed "To Teacher." I was wondering why my mom saved just this one card, but then I realized that it might have been the only "full-sized" Valentine that she ever received from a student.

"An apple for the teacher"......wow, that's very old school. Like "Mrs. Crabtree" old school ("Don't call me Norman.....call me "Chubbsy-Ubsy"!)

Those family cuckoo clocks are in various states of working condition. There are two that are fully functional. One does not work at all. And then one works as far as the clock goes and the bird "cuckooing," but it's also supposed to play music after the bird does his thing, and the music box inside seems to be frozen. I do run them, but I have one in my bedroom that I have to stop when I go to bed. I also have a chiming mantle clock that belonged to my great-great aunt. It was a wedding present when she got married in 1915. It still works, and I have never had to have it repaired in all the years I've had it!

"Enchantment Under The Sea" must have been a very common theme, back in the day. I think that was the theme for the school dance in, "Back to the Future." But it would be perfect for anything connected with the Navy. And I like your mom's idea of gluing little mirrors to the decorations!

K. Martinez said...

I really love the Buzza Cardozo Valentine your mom's student Mark gave her. It's very 70's and has that Aristocats vibe as far as colors go.

I have multiple cuckoo clocks even in my bedroom and they don't wake me up at all no matter what time of night they chime. I sleep right through them.

At 3:00 a.m. in the morning, the bird goes; Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo! and I go zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

K. Martinez said...

Thanks, TM! Love the b/w photos your dad took too!

TokyoMagic! said...

Ken, wow! I really don't think I could sleep through a cuckoo clock going off in the bedroom! The mantle clock I mentioned in an earlier response, chimes on the hour and has a bell go off on the half hour. It's just on the other side of my bedroom wall and I can hear it, but I'm able to sleep through that. But again, there is a wall between it and me.

I'm glad to hear that you like my dad's army photos. I have some more with an Easter theme, which I will be sharing in April!

"Lou and Sue" said...

TM! I love seeing all these Valentine's from the past. That lion one (for Daddy) looks so very familiar. I think I have a lion like that on one of my childhood cards. I'll have to search through them, one of these days. I didn't keep them all, but I do have some that my mom put in a scrapbook.

Come to think of it, I also have some of my dad's love letters to my mom, while they were dating. I haven't looked at those in years.

Thank you for sharing your collection with us, and I'm looking forward to seeing more, next year.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

TokyoMagic! said...

Sue, I thought the artwork on the "Lion" Valentine also looked like the style of artwork used on some of those smaller vintage "classroom" Valentines.

That must be fascinating to read your dad's love letters to your mom. I do have a lot of family letters, especially from the time that my mom and dad were over in Europe and writing to relatives back home. It was just too expensive back then, to pick up the phone and call long distance....even domestically. I found that those family letters offer a little glimpse back into the past. They reveal not only some family history, but also what was going on with the rest of the world.

A very happy Valentine's Day to you, too!!!

Stefano said...

Nostalgia, plus. I'm remembering Valentine's Day in elementary school, where we folded red construction paper and drew half a heart down the crease; cutting it with blunt scissors gave us a whole heart with yes, a crease. No doubt about it, commercial cards were better. And then there was the sugar fit induced by those tiny minty candy hearts. . .

I like the American Greetings Corporation card best; it has all of Disneyland's opening day attractions depicted, while the Hot Air Balloon was at least in the earliest plans for the park. Who knows, maybe by 1959 companies were looking at the Magic Kingdom for design ideas-- on GDB I noted that a 1961 paperback edition of Mark Twain's LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI had a cover steamboat illustration modeled exactly on Disneyland's real ship.

Thanks TM! for these cheerful holiday greetings!

TokyoMagic! said...

Stefano, I remember that heart-making technique from elementary school! And I remember those "Conversation Hearts" candy. They were kind of like eating flavored chalk....sort of the same experience as eating Necco Wafers. I think they still make those hearts, but I think a few years back, they updated some of the words and sayings written on them.

Ha, ha....you're right. That one card does have many Disneyland attractions on it! The balloon could have even been the company's way of predicting the future. Remember, the balloon from "Around The World In 80 Days" took off from DL's Plaza, following the park's Easter Parade in 1962!

I must have missed your GDB comment about DL's Mark Twain appearing on the cover of Life on the Mississippi. I'll have to do a search for that image!

DisneyMike said...

I love the collection of cards. They’re certainly a lot nicer than the ones in the early 90’s when I was growing up. Valentines have been so commercial, tv shows, characters, etc. and yes, I know the entire day itself is commercial lol. Well I hope no one here forgot to give their special someone something special. My dad doesn’t even know what the day is or represents so I buy my mom roses every Valentine’s Day to compensate.

TokyoMagic! said...

Mike, the cards today (and even in the 90s) definitely have a different style. And I guess card sales have really declined over the past 25 years or so. They have also become quite expensive. Awwww....what a good son you are, for giving your mom roses every year! I used to give my mom See's candy on every Valentine's Day!