Tag Archives: Found items

Vintage Greeting Cards: Birthday

Memories, Series, Things, , , ,

My mom had a box of greeting cards that, as a child, I loved looking at. Some were funny; some were saccharin sweet. Looking at them now, some are insensitive.

Today I’m going to upload the birthday cards.

A Birthday Greeting For Our Mother (American Greetings)

This is a saccharin sweet one. Reading it hurts my teeth a little. I really like the illustration though.

A birthday greeting for our mother. Ink drawing of a corner in possibly Savannah GA or New Orleans LA with a colorful flower cart in the foreground
Front
Though we sometimes take for granted all the nice things that you do, your words of praise, your helpful ways your love -- and even you. There's nust no moment in the day No day in all the year when you're not loved and wished the joys You hope for, Mother Dear
Greeting

Birthday Greetings (card company not specified)

This one is not as pretty as the one above, but also not as sugary.

Birthday Greetings. Illustration of a bouquet of pink, red, and white roses
Remembering you on your birthday and wishing every happiness today and always.

On Your Day, Mom (American Greetings)

This one is insensitive, I think. It’s obviously about someone from a rural area, possibly in the hills and/or South. Using the word “ain’t” and misspelling poem and sure continue the myth that those people are not smart.

On your day, mom. I aint real good at sayin' nice things. I never wrote no pome -- But this li'l ol' thought comes straight from my heart... Illustration of a red-haired woman in a flowery bonnet wearing a dress and a burlap apron standing next to a pig.
You shore make home sweet home. Happy Birthday Mom

On Your Birthday A Cup of Friendship (card company not specified)

This is sweet — not too sweet. I might actually use it someday.

On your birthday a cup of friendship. Illustration of a decorated coffee pot, cup of coffee, and a rose stem.
A rose stem
Sweet, pleasant. charming, too. A wonderful friend, just grand, that's you. Many Happy Returns.

Greetings on Your Birthday (card company not specified)

I like this one okay too. I will probably use it too.

Greetings on your birthday. Illustration of a spinning wheel that's been turned into a planter.
Illustration of a spinning wheel that's been turned into a planter.
Wishing happiness for your special day and hoping that the year ahead will bring everything good your way.

From Both of Us, Mother, on Your Birthday (American Greetings)

This one is okay. I don’t like the illustration though.

From both of us, Mother, on your birthday. We're just two busy little bees buzzin' in to say we're hoping that you're going to have... Illustration of fanciful bees carrying buckets of honey and flying over flowers.
A honey of a day! Happy Birthday Mother. Illustration of two overflowing buckets of honey.

Happy Birthday, Niece (American Greetings)

This one’s a hoot. I might send it to one of Dean’s nieces. I’m not sure my only actual niece would get the humor.

Happy Birthday Niece. Three cheers for a Niece who is really dear. Illustration of a cheerleader in a yellow top and red skirt holding pompoms and standing next to a megaphone on a sports field.
And hip hip Hooray 'Cause her birthday is here.

Wishing You Lots of Birthday Fun (card company not specified)

Wishing you lots of birthday fun. Illustration of a skating female with long brown hair wearing a button-down shirt, red skirt, and flower bonnet, carrying a purse and a bouquet of flowers
You're one year older now and so this brings a special big "hello" and special wishes just to say "Have lots and lots of fun all day". Happy Birthday

For Your Birthday (card company not specified)

This one is pretty and I will probably use it.

For your birthday. Drawings of swans swimming in a pond surrounded by lily pads and reeds
A swan on a pond surrounded by lily pads and reeds
Thinking of you and wishing many happy returns of the day!

Small bottle of Deanston Single malt Whisky

Genealogy research, Things, Travel, , ,

I’m still in the midst of a declutter as a result of clearing out the knee wall before replacing our roof. I thought I’d blogged about this small bottle of Deanston Single Malt Whisky before but nothings coming up in the search for “Deanston”. I probably wrote about it on another blog.

When we were in Scotland we visited the home in which my ancestors lived before immigrating to the United States. We’d not called ahead — mostly because we didn’t have the telephone number, but the current owners were welcoming and told us to make ourselves at home and look around the property. They also invited us in the kitchen and when we introduced ourselves the husband presented my husband with this (then unopened and full) bottle of Deanston Single Malt Whisky because my husband’s name is Dean.

Dean kept it in his toiletries bag for years, but finally drank it at some point. After keeping the empty bottle for a while he tossed it in the recycle bin but I fished it out because it was one of our only souvenirs of our trip to the UK in 2002.

I think I am ready to give it up. Or at least move it from my box of memories to one of our China cabinets.

Craft Item from Illinois’ Sesquicentennial Celebration

Memories, Musings, , , ,

I was 12 when my home state of Illinois celebrated its 150th anniversary of its admission to the Union. I don’t remember much about the celebrations, but I do remember making this leather patch/necklace in Girl Scouts. I’m going to guess that the colored yarn represented feathers on a Native American headdress, but I could very well be wrong. Maybe they were just for looks.

And while we’re on the topic of Illinois — I just listened to the state song of Illinois (called Illinois) and remember singing it in school. I remembered the lyrics at the beginning, but near the end is this stanza:

Not without thy wondrous story, Illinois, Illinois,
Can be writ the nation’s glory, Illinois, Illinois,
On the record of thy years,
Abraham Lincoln’s name appears, Grant and Logan, and our tears, Illinois, Illinois,
Grant and Logan, and our tears, Illinois.
Grant and Logan, and our tears, Illinois.

Stanza from Illinois’ state song

I knew who Lincoln and Grant were, of course, but I had to look up Logan. This sentence caught my eye:

In 1853, John A. Logan helped pass a law which prohibited all African Americans, including freedmen, from settling in the state.

Wikipedia (see also https://www.lib.niu.edu/1996/iht329602.html)

This man is honored, not only in the Illinois state song, but has two statues erected of him — one in Chicago and one in Washington DC — and has cities, towns, neighborhoods and at least one college named after him.

I’m surprised no one is talking about this.