For your love
Columnist looks at Valentine’s gifts of 50-plus years ago.
Wednesday is Valentine’s Day, and
The Oklahoman has a long history of reporting on the holiday.
Nearly 60 years ago, on Feb. 11, 1962, Women’s Staff Writer Darlan Garrett offered these Valentine gift ideas for those who might have wanted to venture beyond the usual card and chocolates:
Today’s ingenious teens should have a heyday shopping for their Valentines. Retailers’ displays of Valentine suggestions are abundant and this year feature the three c’s: cards, candy and cosmetics.
No longer limited to best gals and beaus, Valentines and gifts are suggested for everyone from grandmothers to secret pals.
Traditional red and white again turn up in every department. Shoe totes, umbrellas, laundry hampers, wool mufflers, bowling bags, and opera glasses may all be found in a variety of rosy hues.
Far-sighted shoppers are selecting Valentines with a thought toward approaching spring weather. If “he” is the outdoor man, this holiday is the perfect time to provide him with a variety of equipment including power lights, aluminum cook kits, binoculars, hunting knives and canteens.
For the sportsman, fishing floats and lures, a plastic minnow — thermos and monogrammed golf ball, all appropriately arrayed in the season’s color, are displayed along with traditional hearts and flowers.
Valentines with a sweet tooth are perhaps the easiest to shop for. This time of year candy firms seem to delight in going all out with frilly trimming. Their heart-shaped boxes are filled with cream-centered chocolates, candy-coated nuts, marzipan and mints.
Strictly fun ideas for Valentines include boxes of rare tea, round playing cards, a nautical hydrometer-barometerthermometer combination, silver money clips and sterling collar pins, a mother-of-pearl shoe horn, and a transistor radio shaped like a globe with tuning bands located at the north pole and equator.
Even list of gift suggestions for practical hard-to-please Valentines are lengthy. For the ladies, glove-stretchers and satin glove valets, heart-shaped shoe pads that come in raspberryflavored velvet, bottled hearts of soap, and travel clocks in bright red lizard.
Practical young gentlemen are sure to be pleased with pure silk handkerchief, leather fur-lined gloves, a brief case of color-fast water-resistant cowhide (perfect for high school forensics) or a leather box for cuff links.
While many of these 1960s gift suggestions are more likely to be found in the attic or an antique store, Valentine’s Day still offers us the chance to express our loving sentiments to those we care about, and if imagination eludes, a card and a box of chocolates can still please that special Valentine.
If you would like to contact Mary Phillips about The Archivist, email her at gapnmary@gmail.com