Friday, March 27, 2020

Say it With Creeping Phlox!

Just a few weeks ago, when the Earth was still somewhat normal, aka pre-Coronavirus 2020, I found this amazing square bound book, Greetings, Dearie! which collects a varied selection of distributed (as well as non distributed) Hallmark Contemporary greeting cards from the year 1962. I was at an estate sale a mere dozen or so houses away from my own, (I also found Cabin Boy on DVD!), and so to put it nicely, the unfortunate passing of one of my elderly lady neighbors now becomes a pot of gold for everyone that follows this blog, because today I have one whole chapter (the bleakly appropriate "get well" section) of this 190+ page book for everyone to enjoy. So please note that in this age of pandemic virus and quarantined isolation, I promise I will continue to do my part to at least instill some small sense of strained humor around here, whether in tacky jokes, kitschy artwork, or whatever the post subject may be. In the face of a grim sickness that appears to be slowly swallowing up the Earth, I suppose what these vintage Hallmark greeting cards attempted to convey even half a century ago is as similarly relevant today-- that yes, sometimes laughter can still be the best medicine. Even if it isn't.







































STAY WELL EVERYONE!

7 comments:

JMR777 said...

Laughter, the last line of defense for the human race, especially in the face of hardship an adversity.


All of these cars are great-
a little editing to some of these cards-
#6, how is old butterfingers?
Worse nicknames-
how is ol' Drunken Danny?
how is ol' Jekil n Hyde?
how is ol' Doc Frankenstein?

#9 Cheer Up!
when they were digging his grave they struck oil.
Maybe his last name was Al Bundy

#15 homespun remedy

Heres mine for the common cold-
mix together
one ounce of whiskey,
one ounce of rye
one ounce of vodka
one ounce of gin
and three ounces of Rock and Rye
and drink this concoction every ten minutes.
It doesn't cure the cold but after an hour you
won't seem to care.

#18 The French eat fatty foods but have lower
rates of heart attack and stroke
some say it is due to the red wine counteracting the effects of the food,
more likely it is the fact the wine makes them mellow and lowers their
stress levels,
less stress less heart troubles, and we all need less tress during this time, our version of the pandemic of 1918.

stay well, stay safe and stay indoors as much as possible everyone!
Here's hoping I see you all safe and sound in 2021!

Craftypants Carol said...

Awesome! These are from back when cards were actually unique and funny. I hardly ever see a card these days that I think is even remotely funny.

Thanks for posting them!

Mr. Cavin said...

Man, it's just a book of that year's greeting cards? That's wonderful. I've never seen such a thing. I really wish there was a lot more of this kind of thing. Taschen or Yoe! or somebody could publish cards by theme: Five hundred pages of Halloween greetings in hardback? I'd pay two hundred bucks for that.

Also, I thought all of these were funny. I even laughed out loud reading some of them. "Old Butterfingers" had my favorite art. Can't hardly wait to see more.

Brian Barnes said...

Well, now that was a bit dark, but a viewing of Cabin Boy should clear that right up!

John said...

What a find! A lot of these are actually humorous. I find a lot of "greeting cards" today to be rude and a little mean-spirited.

JBM said...

Thank you, these were nice. Didn't I see some that were drawn by a certain "Mad" cartoonist?

Mr. Karswell said...

I've actually posted quite a few cards over the years from that same certain MAD artist, so yes! :)

Thank you all for the comments, and note that I will most certainly post more from this book collection in the coming months, so stay tuned for them!