Vintage Valentine's Day Cards - 1950s

Two years ago, I shared some "classroom" Valentines, from my childhood.  A good number of those were unused Disney-themed Valentines, which I had saved for years.

Today, I'm sharing some larger Valentine cards.  These were all glued inside of a scrapbook that my mom had made, back when she was in junior high school.  The pages were labeled, "Valentine's Day 1950."

This first one was given to my mom, by her grandmother.

This one was given to her by her friend, "Kathy."

For some reason, this next one was unsigned.  Maybe it was from a "secret admirer."

This Valentine was from "Spencer."  That "playing post office" line is pretty old.  I'm not sure that kids today would know what that means.  In fact, I'm not sure that I know what it means.  Isn't it a little too risque to be included on a "school" Valentine?

Hey, this one's also a little risque.  I'm not a prude, but this was given to an eighth grader......and my mother!  This was from a friend with the nickname, "Poncy."  We'll get to see what a "Poncy" looks like, in just a minute.

The scrapbook also included some photos that my mom had taken, of her friends at school.  Several years back, my mom had gotten this scrapbook out and was showing it to me.  At that time, she shared stories about the items in the book, and also about the people in these photos.

This is my mom (left) with her friend, Kathy, who had given her one of the Valentines seen above.  My mom told me about how Kathy lived in a house behind the Los Angeles County Arboretum.  She said one day, Kathy and her family woke up to the sounds of "wild animals."  When they looked out their windows, they could see elephants and other animals, walking around.  The animals had been brought to the Arboretum, for the filming of one of the Tarzan movies.

The guy on the far right, is Poncy!  It almost seems like the guy in the leather jacket (on the left) would be a "Poncy."  The guy in the white shirt is "Spencer," who also gave my mom one of the Valentines, seen above.

And here is another shot of Poncy.  His real name was Ronald.  I did the math and figured out that he would now be 85 years old.  I wonder if people still call him "Poncy"?  If Arthur Fonzarelli had been a real person, would people have continued to call him, "Fonzie," on into his senior years?

I was curious as to whether or not this school was still standing.  Well, it is, and I found out from Google "street view," that those support columns with the crisscross framework also still exist.  I also got to wondering about those houses across the street from the school.  It looks like they have all been torn down, and replaced with "town houses."  But that little Spanish-style bungalow seen above, was the last one to go, and was still standing as recently as 2007.  Unfortunately, it disappeared shortly after that.  In this screenshot from July of 2007, it looks like it was going to be bulldozed at any moment.

Okay, back to the vintage Valentines!  These next three were just "loose" and were not glued into the scrapbook.  This first one was given to my mom, by her grandmother.  The red trim around the edges and some of the hearts, were "flocked."

This one was given to her, by her father.  It has the year, 1951, printed on the back of it.

And this one was given to her, by her mother.  The large red heart is made of a satin-like material, and is "padded."  I must have forgotten to scan the inside of the card, because I did not find it in my files.

We will end this post with a vintage Valentine postcard, which is over 100 years old.  I bought this for my mom, in an antique store in Victoria, B.C., Canada.  The store had a large collection of postcards from the early 1900s.  I bought my mom several, including ones for Easter, Mother's Day, Christmas, and Thanksgiving.  I also gave her a frame, so that she could display them, according to the current holiday season.  Most of the details on the postcard are embossed, including Cupid, the hearts, and all of the flowers.

I hope everyone enjoyed these vintage Valentine cards.  Here's wishing an early "Happy Valentine's Day," to all!

Update:  I have since done another "Vintage Valentine" post, featuring Valentines from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.  For anyone who's interested, that post can be seen by clicking here:  More Vintage Valentines - 60s, 70s, & 80s.