100 Year Old Valentines

At the urging of the Tabbies o Trout Towne I decided to repost my father’s valentines which he had saved. After he died I found a large collection of cards in a box he saved as a child from different holidays. Valentines were the most numerous by far. These run from 1917 to 1928 but most are from the early 1920’s. In other words 100 years old plus or minus a few years. None have envelopes. Some are postcards like the very last one, some are three D foldouts, some are cutouts which were never cut out. Some were just “ordinary”. The black and white ones are examples of what is to be found inside some of them when opened. I knew some of the relatives family friends whose names are on the cards when I was young. Some of the other valentines may be the only artifacts left behind on earth to show someone lived. If you haven’t seen them I hope you enjoy them. I looked up valentines on the web and did not see any of these but what I did see had little monetary value. Over 90 images are shown below, plus Dad on the family farm. He was the youngest of three brothers and got the hand-me-downs.

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Opie loves Christmas music / Vintage Christmas postcards (Reblog 2015)

Opie

Opie

Opie is a cat that enjoys music. She especially likes when I put a platter on the old record player purchased in 1974. I have an older and larger console model from the 60’s which works perfectly well, but you see I now use it as a TV stand.

cat and tv

Opie likes the screensaver

I had to protect the cloth over the speakers to prevent the cats from scratching them. My eyesight is poor so I must sit very close to see properly. Opie is waiting for me in my chair. She likes to sit in my lap and watch or sleep. I have several boxes full of records. I do sit and play them now and then. The most used ones are the Christmas albums, which are played in December.

Opie and record player

Opie loves music

Vintage Christmas Cards

My father kept all the holiday cards he received until 1930. Here are a few. They are all postcards and not folding cards. Some I can exactly date and others I cannot.They are mostly from the 1920’s. Cards do not show any publishers or origin.

1916
Santa getting into sleigh

Christmas Card horse drawn wagon

1925

Christmas Card children and wagon

1923

Christmas Card Santa sleigh

Santa on sleigh

Christmas Card child on rocking horse

(1922) Reference to Teddy Roosevelt. Nice sword–don’t poke your eye out!

Christmas Card Santa emptying sack

1925 Took me a minute to figure this one out!

Christmas Card cats

1921 Cats for Christmas!

Christmas Postcard 1922

1922

Christmas postcard 1923

1923

Christmas postcard 1918

1918  Santa smoking pipe

Christmas postcard 1920

1920

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Vintage Cards, the Nutcracker Suite, and Singing Christmas Mice!

Today we have some Vintage Cards, The Nutcracker Suite, and Singing Christmas Mice. My father saved a lot of holiday cards when he was a boy and here are just a few dated Christmas cards from the late teens and 1920’s. Following them is my old Nutcracker Suite music box. There are higher tech ones made now, but you can watch mine and see the Nutcracker in two minutes! Finally my Singing Christmas Mice sing a few songs. There is an infrared beam between the two big mice prompting them when to sing.

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Zeke cat valentine

Another Happy Valentine’s Day

Another Happy Valentine’s Day! Or at least it would be if my “valentine” and I were together. Today I decided to repost some of my father’s valentines which he had saved. After he died I found a large collection of cards in a box he saved as a child from different holidays. Valentines were the most numerous by far. These run from 1917 to 1928 but most are from the early 1920’s. None have envelopes. I knew some of the relatives whose names are on the cards. Some of the other valentines may be the only artifacts left behind on earth to show someone lived. Due to technical WordPress difficulties, this is not the entire set, but it is a large representative sample. If you haven’t seen them I hope you enjoy them, and have a great wonderful Valentine’s Day all you very lucky couples out there! Over 60+ valentines are shown below.

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Scooby and the Vacuum Revisited / Squirrel

Several years back I posted these videos of Scooby and the vacuum. Since there are plenty of new people browsing around the Feline Cafe–no masks required, I have posted these today to once again illustrate that Scooby likes the vacuum. He is a real annoyance as you can see trying to vacuum as he won’t even get out of the way for it. He likes to play with the wand as well. So there you have it– video and audio proof! No, he is NOT deaf! No matter how quietly you try to open a tin of cat food, he can hear it and come running out of a dead sleep! As a bonus, today I add a video of my clockwork squirrel on the dining room table. He goes much faster if he is wound up tighter, but I am afraid to break the spring. If you do not have audio working, you can hear the squirrel chew his nuts. His eyes used to roll around but alas no more!

I add yet another photo below of Scooby from Jan 4 2020 where he predicts what the year will be like for us all.

Scooby's Prediction for 2020
Scooby’s Early Prediction for 2020
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