Well, we’re sneaking up on spring, or vice versa, and I’m sure you’ll remember that fine old line: “In spring, a young man’s fancy turns lightly to what the young ladies have been thinking about all winter.”
Postcards were never shy about romance, and the artists responsible for the images on postcards knew a great deal about how the course of true love ran never smooth. One of the great obstacles to romance, according to the postcards of old, was not winter, but the difficulty of finding the time, the place, and the opportunity. Even in an age when people did NOT carry a camera around in their pockets, the possibility of a private place for a quiet cuddle was slender, and excuses had to be found. Here, for example, we have a couple of couples who have ventured WAY too far from the roadway, and have become so lost in the depths of the dark forest that their only choice is to huddle together for warmth, and wait for a glimmer of light to break through the surrounding gloom. (That car hasn’t even pulled off onto a shoulder…but it’s the only one.)
There were so many jokes, around the turn of the last century, about what happened on the train when it went through a tunnel (completely unlighted in those days) that it makes on yearn for the good old days.
And we have noted hereintofore about the romantic uses of the umbrella, both on and off the beach.
There was also a blog abut how indispensable an accessory to romance the park bench was, but at that point, I hadn’t seen THIS chap, who apparently waited until he found a place t sit down before telling the woman he loves her.
There are not nearly so many postcards discussing what happens when two people manage to slip off to the kitchen to heat something up, but they do exist, this cowboy cuisine version being one of the most recent examples. (I admit to some curiosity about what they’ll be enjoying later, but the way they’re cooking, it won’t be what’s in that pot.)
There’s a fine old joke about this kind of excuse, about the couple at the train station who bid each other such a passionate farewell that the train pulled off without them, the passengers watching until the locomotive chugged away into the distance. The stationmaster watched them do this again for the noon train, the train at half past, and when they pulled the same performance for the one o’clock passenger special, we ambled over and said, “Why don’t you folks run over to the bus station. They leave every ten minutes there.”
A hammock is always a good excuse, once you master the art of defying gravity. We also did a blog on how these provided an excuse for sitting close, since they sag toward the middle, pushing two occupants together. And the best ones had enough cloth in them so that anyone who decided to lie down in one caused gravity to bring the sides up, hiding the occupant(s).
Any excuse will do, of course. THIS chap with his hearing problem, mistakes “Oh you men!” for “Kiss me again”. Personally, I don’t think he has a hearing problem so much as a listening problem.
Then there’s THIS excuse. I’m sure np one really…yes, Groucho used a version of it, but…yes, I HAVE heard about five country songs based on the same idea, though…well, yeah, I guess I HAVE kept a straight face while people told me about explaining this to a sweetheart. Well, let’s just admit it’s spring, and the excuses are blooming.
Blogsy Babbles 