Love in the West, Kindergarten Style!

These 1962 valentines are proof that we can all just get along, no matter our tribe!

Can't you tell by now?  I love all y'all!  And you can prove your love for me by coming back TOMORROW, March 1st, for the commencement of 2022's MARCH MAZEPPA MADNESS!

 

Highway to Your Heart

Or, First-Grade "driving" metaphors.

You can't get more lovable than a puppy.

I notice a trend of  "old-time" imagery.  Above are 1920s-1930s outfits ...

And doggie crossing guard is decked out as if in a Laurel-and-Hardy short.

Nothing old-fashined about love, though.  I hope you have some!  See you Monday for the final round of this year's MY SIXTIES VALENTINE!  Dare we say it --- It's a DATE!

  

Two Soo-Zees

Both are from Kindergarten.

While I don't know the last name of "Susie," we can agree that a grown-up signed the above card.

On the other (fencing) hand, I am completely charmed by the authenticity of "Suzie."

See you on Thursday!

  

Mushy First-Graders

I got these in Mrs West's First-Grade class.  Sure, they were probably bought in bulk by our parents, but that doesn't mean my six-year-old manliness wasn't affrighted by such mushiness.

I mean, I didn't want to be anybody's "Queen of Hearts"!

See you on Monday.

  

From the Family and the Teacher

Above is the valentine I received from Mom and Dad in thew year I was in Kindergarten.  That's 1962.

And above is the valentine from our Kindergarten teacher, Mrs Pickell.  Since there were between 15 and 20 of us in that class, I bet she got writer's cramp addressing and signing them all!  Can any classmates confirm if we all got the same one?

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you buckaroos and toots!  See you Thursday!

  

Fallin' in the First Grade!

I received all of these for Valentines', 1963.

Maybe the sailor boy was on a rolling deck.

Ice skates can be tricky too.

But roller skates can lull the unwary to big ol' ouchies.  Unlike the previous two tumblers, this guy acts awfully happy about it.

See you on Monday!

Kindergarten Kapers

Above is the pouch I made in Mrs Pickell's Kindergarten class, for my democratically distributed valentines.

For the life of me, I can't recall who "Ellen" is.

However, "Franky" is Mrs Pickell's son Frank, doomed to be stuck with me due to our coinciding ages.

See you Thursday with more back-time flashes!

   

Welcome to a Month of Paper Love!

That's right, February will feature scans of Valentines I received in 1962 and 1963 -- that's Kindergarten and First Grade.

In those olden days, everybody gave a valentine to everybody else.  Each kid made an envelope out of construction paper and decorated it.  Our teachers sent home a list of all the kids in the class.  It was up to the kid's mom and dad to buy enough valentines for distribution.  

The pouch above is from the First Grade.  That's the class of Mrs Lorene West, at Will Rogers Elementary, in good ol' Bartlesville, OK.

As you'll see, sometimes an adult hand wrote.  But I personally treasure the ones with shaky kid writing.  That's how I still write, you know!

That's Mary Ann Gragson, who lived a few doors up the hill from us.

Above are a couple more first-grade missives.

See you on Monday!

  

To the Bat-TV! Quick!

This is from the July 1992 issue of Amazing Heroes. That's issue #203.

See you on Thursday for the beginning of a month-long feature I'm gonna call MY SIXTIES VALENTINE.

  

Time and Tech Stumble Onward!

All of these ads are from the April 27, 1981 issue of Time mag.

The company Compucorp still exists as Compuco

Kodak exists and wants you to tour its smart factory

Pioneer's LaserDisc, like the postmodern CD, used a laser to read digital info.

In contrast, RCA's VideoDisc was a magnetic storage system.  

A comparison of the techs here.

And 40 years later, all of these functions are in the phone in somebody's back pocket.  Progress?  You tell me.

   

Maybe These Folks Gave Up on New Comics, Too

This is from the January 1, 1993 Oklahoman.

It took a few decades, but several years ago I gave up on new comics. I was a DC fan, and I was tired of being jerker around by reboots and gigantic crossover events. Give me the silly Silver Age, when there were only a dozen or so Earths!

I wonder if any of these youngsters are still reading "new" comics?  What about you?

  

Is It a Silly Place?

Camelot 3000 was DC's first maxiseries. I bought its original run. Written by Mike Barr and drawn by Brian Bolland, IT WAS EPIC!

This preview ran in Amazing Heroes #14, its August 1982 issue.

Man, those aliens always made me think of big bugs.  And if you think that ol' Merlin was a bit of an SOB, you ain't alone.  Yet as a hopeless Anglophile, I was suckered in.

Compare it, if you wish to a segment from Twilight Zone '85 called "The Last Defender of Camelot," based on a Zelazny tale.

See you Monday!

  

The New Yorker Surveys Tolkien Fever

This is from the January 15, 1966 issue of The New Yorker. 

Fifty-six years ago, they were on the pulse of fantastical delights.  You are free to argue that, having published Thurber and Addams, they were already there!  See you Thursday.