More sentiment of the sweet season to follow in the next 14 days of Valentines.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
From the XO Files
We share with you selections from a recent acquisition of vintage Valentines made possible by the generous donation of a kindred spirit in collecting. There is a lot to say, but at the same time not much that needs to be said about these sweet offerings of the heart. Saved for three quarters of a century by bachelor farmers who received them from school pals and relatives in the 20's and 30's they speak for themselves as they did for the young givers who were perhaps too tongue-tied to express their feelings out loud. We do wonder if the affection shown by Lorna, Perdilla, Bernetta, Mariella, Nedra, and others through rhyming verse and gilded design was reciprocated by the shy brothers, but we will never know.
More sentiment of the sweet season to follow in the next 14 days of Valentines.
More sentiment of the sweet season to follow in the next 14 days of Valentines.
Amazing that the bachelor uncles remained bachelors with these young woman obviously in hot pursuit! And the fact that they saved them tells volumes, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteI think it does. Another interesting thing is that many of the Valentines with the same sweet sentiments were from boys to boys. Floyd, Eldon, Melvin, Kenneth, Donald, Wendell, and Elmer also wanted their pals to "say you'll be mine". Could it be that boys were more free in the past to express affection for their friends of either gender? A more innocent age perhaps?
ReplyDeleteMaybe, maybe not. They probably had teachers like mine who demanded - and then did a cursory count - that if you were distributing Valentines you HAD TO give one to EVERYONE. And since the cards have historically been of the schmaltzy, gooey message variety, then even boys got what they got.
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