Against all odds, it survived, a treasured keepsake from my past, and another reason why it’s so important for me to hold onto things. I’ve always saved and stored in a variety of containers, special objects and personal artifacts that reveal and remind me of what I was like years ago in my youth and later adulthood, and how I thought about and remembered others. In this instance it was a birthday card booklet for my mother.
It was published in 1967, and the year matches exactly my neat handwriting on the inside cover. I was a junior in high school in New Orleans when I wrote this inscription
“Happy Birthday, Mom! These small things say a lot.”
The inscription was not too eloquent but it was heartfelt. Instead of my usual birthday card, I did something a little extra that year purchasing at the card shop a special booklet in a series published over the years in the 1960s by Hallmark. It contained a rather large selection of inspirational poems and sayings, with pure Americana photos to illustrate each poem. I had forgotten I even had it until I stumbled across it sitting in a pile of magazines in my living room.
My mother was a 1960s stay-at -home mom: occupation, “homemaker,’ as they were described in the post-war decades of the 1950s and 1960s. She was there for my brother, sister and I after school each day, or most days at least, since she kept very busy with volunteering and civic organizations, primarily The League of Women Voters. She was so proud of her role as membership chairwoman (chairman still, back in the 60s).
This was the decade of transformation, and by the 1970s the role of women was changing dramatically as they joined the workforce as never before, in roles and occupations that included many more types of jobs than teaching and nursing, vital as those were and always will be.
In the 1950s we watched “I Love Lucy,” “The Honeymooners,” and Leave it to Beaver,” and in the 60s “The Ed Sullivan Show,” The Dick Van Dyke, Show,” “The Beverly Hillbillies,” and the now cult classic, “Green Acres.”
And yes, Mom baked a lot of cookies for us to snack on after school. I always enjoyed those in addition to my favorite snack, “Mrs. Paul’s Fish Sticks” heated in the toaster oven and dunked in plenty of ketchup.
As I noted, this specific booklet was published in 1967. The Dedication opening poem is a famous German blessing translated into English. The full verse reads:
Where there is faith, there is love;
Where there is love, there is peace;
Where there is peace, there is God;
And where there is God, there is no need.
I always have liked sending cards in the mail, and handwritten letters. In the Internet age, those now quaint means of greeting, showing love and caring, are mostly past-tense now, the traditions continued by a few holdouts. We’ve lost something in the transition.
You will be hard pressed to find anything published today like that 1967 inspirational booklet, although thankfully they can be found online at retailers like eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. Lots of people have held onto those keepsakes over the decades, and I certainly know why. What memories they evoke!
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