Yes, oh eager blogwatchers, today is Valentine’s Day: a day of romance and/or chocolate and/or jewelry and/or cigars and/or…has anybody done a checklist Valentine, offering the recipient a list of things they can wish for? I have the sentiment for the inside already: “All you’re going to GET is this card, but it doesn’t hurt to wish.” (Yeah, I did a stint as a freelance greeting card writer, and my only triumph for February was a special efficiency Valentine which wished people a Happy VD…see, in those days Sexually Transmitted Diseases were known as Venereal Diseases, which commonly got abbreviated as…yeah, it wasn’t all that funny back in the day, either. That’s why I moved on to the more lucrative profession of blogger.)
Anyway, as you already knew or guessed, our ancestors were not slow about sending Valentine postcards. These tended to run along the sort of themes you might expect. (This verse turns up on at least three postcards with pictures by different artists. Whoever wrote it just hit all the right notes.)
And if you know your antique postcards, you also know about the “Vinegar Valentine”, a custom which began in the Victorian days of luxurious greeting cards dripping with lace. I learned about these in grade school history classes, and was always taught they were made to send to people you didn’t like. I have grown to doubt this. Maybe they were more like Old Maid cards (which used much of the same aesthetic) and people just liked to laugh at the caricatures, and eagerly collected them, even in the days when you could get ten for a penny at some sale of scrap paper.
Cupid got his best day out on Valentine’s Day, where he takes on a variety of jobs depending on the artist’s imagination. He might be a chestnut vender
Or a fisherman
But the most common occupation for Cupid on Valentines was as a mailman, delivering hearts to all and sundry. Of course, some senders preferred to take their greetings over personally. (That way you could seal it with a kiss on arrival.)
Artists could actually apply Valentine wishes to any picture, of course. Love being universal, one could draw whatever ethnic group seemed especially charming and affix the wishes accordingly. (Yes, there are plenty of cards featuring Dutch kids with Valentines…enough for a whole nother blog, really.)
Some artists, perhaps under deadline or just figuring whatever they were good at was good enough, kind of cheated. This one could just as easily have gone out labelled “Easter Wishes” or “Birthday Greetings”.
If that seems to be a thoughtless rush to bring out Valentines so people could spend money on them, this idea is not new. This 1907 Valentine is festooned with advertising slogans, emphasizing the profits which could be made by associating products with romance.
And why fight it, after all? THIS postcard is good at Neiman-Marcus (on or around Valentine’s Day, 1997) for two Valentine’s Day coffee mugs or (if you use your credit card) a tote bag with this same logo. I assume it is unredeemed because even in 1997, everyone already HAD plenty of coffee mugs and tote bags.
If, like Cupid here, you are in danger of being overwhelmed by all the holiday wishes, take courage, there are those who are fighting back. For such people, in my greeting card days, I invented the Belated Valentine. Somehow this was not even as popular as my line of Belated Get Well cards, but I still think they have possibilities. My favorite was “Happy February Fifteenth! I wanted to show you the depth of my devotion and the extent of my emotion!”
Inside, it said, “But I also wanted to wait until the cards were marked down.”
Blogsy Babbles 