So, tomorrow is Valentine's Day and it made me want to share my old Valentines with you. The cards and images were collected over many years, not because I am a huge lover of this holiday (although it is nice), but because I can't resist the beauty, whimsy, engineering and with some cards, the sense of humor, that is displayed.
Several of the cards have the loopy old writing of the original giver and the fading penmanship clearly speaks of a different time. A time when it was not a Bic pen and the Hallmark store, but a fountain pen and the local druggist with a soda shoppe counter.
When I think of how the cards must have been lovingly kept for years and years by someone who thought it worth their time to keep a card safe, I can't help but speculate on what might have happened. Maybe the card was something special, given by a loved husband, a first boyfriend, a lost love. Maybe it was a card given by one best friend to another. Maybe these people ended up married. Who knows. But then, that is one of the pulls for me with old things...how I really don't know the history of the item, except for what I can look up in books. I don't know the real life history, but can imagine a past life, can speculate on what might have been....making up imaginary lives for the beautiful, old items I find. Oh, I love to speculate and imagine. If you've never imagined a life for one of your finds, try it....and see where your imagination takes you!
For the most part, the older cards are very delicate, especially the three dimensional ones. I would love to display them year round, and have in the past. But as the years go by, I am aware that light, dust, and just about everything else is working to recycle my beautiful valentines back to nothing. So, I pull them out every once in a while and display them on my mantle in February, enjoying the little bit of old fashioned love they bring into my life. Then, I carefully pack them up, and put them back into a box, to be stored in the chaos that is my craft room....waiting for next year to bring them out again.
On the back is written to Hazel, from Myrtle.
This sassy gal has eyes that move all around and a leg
that pivots up and down!
There is a date written on the front that says 1927.
This little girl is too precious for words!
The balustrade swings open for a 3-D effect.
The card with the birds, in the background, was the first old
valentine I ever bought. It is dated 1910 on the back and
says: From Lucile Swenson, To Jerry Ginger.
I bought this card 13 years ago to go on top of my wedding cake!
Does the little girl in the right hand valentine look familiar?
That's Shirley Temple!
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!
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