I know a lot of you like to take potshots at the greeting card companies. In the midst of any given holiday madness, I have searched for a handy scapegoat, myself.
But truth be told, I am one of the reasons that the greeting card companies continue to thrive. I am a card junkie and have been since college. My devotion may well predate that, but my fondest card-giving memories came from my coed years.
My best memory is of standing in the San Diego State University bookstore, howling with laughter. It had the absolute best selection of funny cards, back in the day. I really should drop by there one day soon and see if the tradition has held up.
As I stood there giggling, I recognized a similar laugh on the other side of the card rack. It was my sorority sister and ever-since dear friend Stacey.
We immediately began falling down in the aisles of card stores everywhere and swapping cards. We have probably invested our retirement in stamps doing that same thing ever since.
Of course, Stacey isn’t my only card-swapping friend.
Now that I think about it, I realize that all my closest friends are the ones who appreciate the same cards I do.
It is something of an acid test of friendship and could really have helped me do a better job of selecting men to date back in my youth. It is probably the first stop you should make on your way to the wedding planner. Never mind the ring, cake or flowers. Take him to the card store.
If your future spouse does not laugh at — or heaven forbid, doesn’t even get — the cards that make you double over, kiss him goodbye. It will never work.
I am especially pleased to report a new opportunity to send funny cards among many of my younger mom friends.
Their chicks are just heading off to college and I urge them to take every opportunity to send suitably goofy cards.
It will help lift the unavoidable gloom caused by their sudden absence. Send them until your child complains his new friends have begun to whisper questioningly about this manic mother.
But you know they’re laughing and a little jealous.
It may leave them puzzled, but it has been my experience that one can never get too much mail.
I feel sure that even these computer-fed youngsters who would no more lick a stamp than lick their iPads, love to get snail mail.
That has to be especially true during those first weeks, as these small but wonderful fish acclimate to their much larger ponds. Just remember. You can’t take an email and stand it up proudly on your dresser to show somebody loves you, now can you?
Jean Gillette is a freelance writer and rather loud card store customer. Contact her at [email protected].
