Search This Blog

CHRISTMAS CARDS

Before the advent of email and animated websites, people used to celebrate important occasions by using the postal service to send each other decorated pieces of sturdy paper, often featuring some sort of encouraging or celebratory verse. These notes were called "greeting cards." Do you member them? Electronic communication has made them less prevalent, though they can still be purchased if one knows where to shop. They provided the recipient with a token of good wishes more permanent than a telephone call, or an email. Back when Vic and Sade was being produced, greeting cards were a principal way to commemorate important occasions.

Of course, I'm being facetious. Even today, the greeting card industry is far from dead. At one time, though, greeting cards were such an important part of life that they were available, not only in shops, but from enterprising friends and neighbors. A reader could hardly open a magazine without seeing advertisements for sales kits from greeting card companies. On Virginia Avenue, greeting cards – or more specifically, their sales agents – regularly figured in the adventures at the Gook home. Those magazine ads for greeting card salesmen must have been especially effective in that town. At least five of the neighbors compete for Christmas card sales, and at least five surviving episodes describe their attempts to sell cards to Sade. She is a reluctant customer, partly because she doesn't like to be coerced into a purchase, and partly because of the social politics that would be involved (after all, if she buys from one neighbor, she could offend the other ones). She also objects to the idea of buying Christmas cards in the summer, which is when the sales pitches begin. But, most of all, Sade has no use for the absurd sentiments the cards express. They range from the insipid ("Give me a kiss and make me feel fine / This is Christmas Nineteen Thirty-Nine") to the offensive (". . .The Christmas season's here again / If I had a club, I'd smash your shin.") Even the premiums are no inducement. No one in the family has any use for an hour's worth of free parking in Toledo, Ohio; or has a desire to shake hands with any three inhabitants of St. Paul, Minnesota, listed in the telephone book. Though it's a great strain on Sade, she is able to resist the sales agents' overtures. - Sarah Cole
+ In episode 39-06-01 Grandpa Snyder Christmas Cards, Rush (and Vic) read the Christmas cards (edited): {{{HEAR}}}
+ In episode  40-09-13 Christmas Card Salesmen - the Twins, the Hinks send Vic a sample book.
+ In episode 40-06-18 June Christmas Card Pressure, Rush reads some of the Christmas cards (edited): {{{HEAR}}}
+ In episode 40-12-XX High Pressure Christmas Card Seller - Mis' Harris Sade vows to dodge Mis' Harris' pressure by going shopping with Ruthie. Jimbo reads the cards: {{{hear}}}
+ In episode 42-08-06 Christmas Cards C.O.D., Rush and Sade read off some of the new '42 cards (edited): {{{HEAR}}}
+ In episode 44-05-10 Sade and Mis' Harris Fight - Ladystuff Mis' Harris is mad at Sade because she won't buy cards from her.
+ In episode 44-06-22 Gaggle of June Christmas Card Sellers  Sade outwits the neighborhood Christmas Card sellers by selling her own cards.

PEOPLE KNOWN TO SELL CHRISTMAS CARDS
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)