Come On to the PTA PARTY!

Most likely 64 years ago tonight there was a PTA party in the county of Marin, California. I provide you with the handmade invitation from Montez Lawton's scrapbook.

So why can I narrow this down to 1951? The give away are the first few lines on the inside of the card:

"Come on to our school, our school,
We geeve you—dinner!"

This is a word play on the Rosemary Clooney 1951 hit "Come On-a My House." Too many people will have no idea who Rosemary Clooney was, unless they just think of her as George's aunt. And even fewer people will know the people are who are referred to in the information below from Wikipedia:

"Come on-a My House" is a song performed by Rosemary Clooney on her album Come On-A My House, released on June 6, 1951. The song was written by Ross Bagdasarian and his cousin, the Armenian American Pulitzer Prize winning author William Saroyan, in the summer of 1939, while driving across New Mexico. The melody is based on an Armenian folk song.

It was not performed until the 1950, off-Broadway production of The Son. The song did not become a hit until the release of Clooney's recording.

It was probably Saroyan's only effort at popular songwriting, and it was one of Bagdasarian's few well-known works that was not connected to his best-known creation, Alvin and the Chipmunks. Bagdasarian, as David Seville, went on to much fame with his Chipmunks recordings.

…the song touches upon traditional Armenian customs of inviting over relatives and friends and providing them with a generously overflowing table of fruits, nuts, seeds, and other foods. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

So take a minute and imagine the PTA party back in '51. I'm betting there were a lot of crepe paper decorations.





And the Rosemary Clooney record playing.

Vintage OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS Card

VALENTINES From Parents to Their Daughter

This week I was given an old tattered scrapbook that belonged to a woman named Montez Lawton. She was an elementary school teacher in Northern California. The book is falling apart, the pages brittle. But inside are a few wonderful items including handwritten get well wishes from her young students.

These valentines are also inside, sent to her by her parents. I will take them from the album and put them in my archival albums where I keep all of the valentine's I've found. These are unusual to my collection because I tend to find and buy ones that were clearly for children. These are a bit more adult.

Click on any image to see it larger.

Published by Rust Craft.

Published by The Wishing Well (not affiliated with the company now using the name in the UK)

This one might as well be a get well card and indeed I imagine the image was used for a variety of cards. Nothing about it looks like a valentine.

Published by Hallmark.

To see some of my past posts about Valentines:

Valentine gamble

VALENTINE, VALENTINE, wherefore art thou? To see more about this book click on the link in the Amazon column to the left. The book sells used dirt cheap. It's full of fun images from old valentines.

Mother's Day BARKER CARD

For anyone who has been with this blog for at least a year you might remember me discussing the scrapbooks of a man named Ted Kramer. I bought two books at a flea market that were being sold by one of his daughters. Full of his memories from college, courting his wife, birth of his daughters, and holidays. Here is one from the early 50s from Ted to his wife, Pearl.

To Ted and Pearl and the lives they led. Why their memories so carefully saved by Ted ended up at a flea market on a foggy cold day I'll never fully understand.

Click on either image to see them larger.

TED KRAMER, father

There once was a man named Ted Kramer who kept scrapbooks about all the important events in his life. Two scrapbooks full of ephemera from his college days in the 1930s, illness, graduation, courting, marriage, and fatherhood. I'd never before seen scrapbooks so lovingly put together by a father/husband. Unfortunately the albums ended up on a junk table at a flea market being sold by a daughter. It was a cold foggy day and the daughter was thrilled to unload the albums and go home. She gave me a photo of her father so that there would be some connection with all the lovely cards, letters, telegrams, and dried bouquets.

Ted is gone, but let's wish him a Happy Father's day for once being someone who cared so much. 

A card from his children on Father's Day.

Click on images to see them larger.

Card publisher: Wishing Well Greetings, date unknown