February Brings Things I Love!

Yep, this month we're gonna take a trip to the past. I've previously showed the desktop image I created for my laptop PARD (Pretty Awesome 'Ritin' Device).  Well, a year or or so ago, ole PARD gave up the ghost and I got a new laptop, appropriately named BUDDY, for our late bestest dog.

Here we are going to give you a good look at each of the cards in this 52-card deck of favorites.

Fantastic Theatre played old sci-fi and monster movies on weekend nights in the Tulsa, OK area.  The host was the urbane(to us kids) Peter Hardt.  A page about Fantastic Theatre here.

Of course, George Reeves as Superman had a huge impact on our middle-America lives.  He was super but approachable, and had a bit of a paunch that in no way interfered with Super Stuff.

As we hit the ages when we wanted to rebel against all authority, 1967's Number Six, The Prisoner, was there to prove that resistance was possible, even though ultimately useless ... kind of like doing a synchronized pencil drop in study hall!

The upright Captain Kirk showed the decisiveness we adolescent boys wished to emulate.  He saw a pretty girl and knew just what to say to get her to talk back. 

One of my oldest friends was the Frankenstein Monster, alive in a world he didn't ask to be born in.  He started out only wanting knowledge and friendship, and look what happened to him!  (We can always do that OTHER adolescent tactic and blame the society or the parent!)

What pre-teen wouldn't love to strut down the street to applause, being cheered for just WHO THEY ARE?!!!?  Plus a wiser older brother or cousin to show you the ropes.

When I watched the imported broadcasts of The Avengers, I couldn't really follow every little thing.  I understood that they were the good guys.  He said smart-aleck comments the way I wish I could.  She wore tight clothes which were probably terribly uncomfortable, but were eye candy for twelve-year-olds.  Even more interestingly, she was a full partner and did lots of the karate-hai-yah stuff.

Well, that's the first patch of things that warped me into the beautiful mess I am today, kids!  Do you too have memories of these icons, or others?  See you Thursday!

  

Farewell to This Childish Heart!

Yes, this is the final post for this year's MY SIXTIES VALENTINE.

Don't miss the word "So" under the boy barber's chin.

You can tell by this one that we didn't care if we gave a boy-seeking-girl valentine to another boy.  The rules required you to give EVERYONE in your class a valentine.  Tough luck if a boyish one went to a girl, or the other way around.

No explanation as to how that cat's paw could handle a three-hole bowling ball.

Well, that's it for this year, fellow heartthrobs!  Come back on Monday for a month of TREKKING WITH CLIPPINGS!

 

Kindergarten Romance -- Not!

Here's the as-yet-unshared valentines I received in 1962 for Valentine's Day, in Mrs Pickell's kindergarten class. 

But first the pouch they came in.

Sad to say, I can't put a face or even a last name to David B.

Similarly, I don't remember playing with a Margaret.

I'm pretty sure that this Paula was Paula Bland.

Check back on Thursday, which due to the frabjous happenstance of this being a Leap Year, we'll have one more installment of MY SIXTIES VALENTINE.

It's a date (in a purely platonic way)!

   

Platonic Love, I Hope

You know, childhood in the Sixties had a lot more innocence for us than I imagine is the case nowadays.

I mean, we all know what bunnies do when nobody's lookin -- they make more bunnies!

Someone could leeringly make a voyeur joke about that one.

Am I wrong, or shouldn't there be a hatchet or maybe a log or board in this kid's hands?  Otherwise, someone might think he's referring to another kind of wood when thinking about his sweetheart?

But thoughts like that didn't come up when we were innocent.  See you on Monday for the last week of MY SIXTIES VALENTINE!

  

Movin' Along

Yup, these valentines from 1963 feature motivation of some kind.

It's interesting that a lot of Valentines seem to be emulating the lives of our parents or grandparents, vide the 1800s locomotive above,

... and the 1930s flivver here.

Of course, a mouse on an elephant never goes out of style, right!?!  See you Thursday!

  

Now We're Cookin'!

These three valentines from First Grade, in February 1963, demonstrate that old adage about gettin lovin' through food. Umm, yeah!

If only our grown-up metabolism could handle a sundae like that, without an immediate ten-pound weight gain!

You could say this guy's love is saah-MOKE-in'!

All of us rough-n-tough type of super-manly guys would have pretended to be all polite and obedient if we would've got some fresh-baked sugar cookies from that little girl.  "Sure, Susie, I'll play house ... until I gobble the last one and run out to play ball until I throw up!  Bye!"

See you Monday, fellow crumb-dusters!

  

Simple and Direct!

For this batch of Valentines from First grade -- February 1963 -- they ain't nuttin' high-falutin' or high concept. Just simple, direct, unequivocal luv.

They's nuthin' wrong with simple and direct ... as long as I don't gotta kiss no girls!  If THAT has to happen, warn me so I can get a clothespin for my nose!

See you Thursday, fellow nose-holders!

  

Animal Love from 1963

Yes, these valentines from first grade (1963) kept things on a subhuman level.

This one confuses me.  Generally I don't associate being cuckoo with being "ho-hum" drowsy ... unless the crazy bird has been doped up by the headshrinkers.

This one recalls the memory that violins used to be strung with "catgut."  So, Is this cool cat serenading YOU by playing music on the eviscerated GUTS of his last girlfriend?

Whatta buncha animals!

See you Monday!

  

Welcome Back to MY SIXTIES VALENTINE!

Yup, we're gonna have another February filled with actual Valentines I received for 1962 and 1963, when I was in Kindergarten and First Grade.

These are from 1963.  The middle one is front-and-back of a single card.

The one above didn't come from a first-grade classmate, but from the big sis of my best friend, Tom Hefner.  I guess Pam was forced into it, although I DO have proof elsewhere that Pam didn't totally hate me, if I can ever find the comic-book proof.

Remember, in the Sixties, such images were one hundred percent innocent.  So no butter jokes or remarks about being stacked ...

See ya Thursday, fellow nostalgians!

  

THE FLASH Episodes 01

The Flash was such a fun TV show. I dubbed and often rewatched my VHS tapes until the DVD set came out.

These are some of the TV Guide listings that adorned my home-decorated tape boxes.

"Ghost in the Machine" aired December 13, 1990.

                               

Mark Hamill's first round as "The Trickster" aired February 7, 1991.  To me it's plain that Hamill's take on the Joker is an expansion of this assay as the Trickster.

"Flash Forward" sent the Flash a decade into a future where Pike is mayor.  Not much fun, especially since the Flash's speed doesn't make the trip with him.

"Shroud of Death" deaths with the death mask of Rasputin and some vengeful types, but is a Flash episode rare in that I can't immediately recall its plot.

See you on Thursday for the rest of my Flash clippings from TV Guide.

  

Signing Off in Animal Passion

As the sun sets slowly in the West, shuttering this year's installment of MY SIXITES VALENTINE, we revisit the concept of furry critters acting on stereotypical human romantic behavior.

These Kindergarten Valentines close out this year.  See you on Thursday, March 2nd, for the commencement of the final MARCH MAZEPPA MADNESS!

  

Phoning It In

The film Bye Bye Birdie wasn't released until a month or two after Valentine's, 1963.

So these telephone-oriented Valentines weren't inspired by the girl gab "Telephone Hour" number, seen in the movie's first minutes.

I betcha that kids nowadays don't understand the "line busy" references, above and below!

See ya on Monday with a final selection of MY SIXTIES VALENTINE for this year.