Valentine’s Day commercialism — and complaints — over a century old

Do you bemoan the commercial push of modern holidays? You would’ve had good company in 1925, when one Daily Republican writer dramatically lamented Valentine’s Day consumerism. Whatever happened to homemade cards?

Headlines in 1950 and 1975 put the spotlight on repeated floods and high school vocational training.

100 years ago

Feb. 14, 1925

• Proving that “kids these days” complaints are cyclical, The Daily Republican lamented the death of the handmade valentine and the commercialization of Valentine’s Day.

“The old and beautiful custom of the sender’s making his own tender missive with which to convey his passion to another is no more. Commercial instincts and printing houses have about replaced the home made valentine,” the writer said.

The shelves of valentines presented “endless variety, but very little novelty.” The most expensive ones went for $15. On the other end of the spectrum were inexpensive cards with popular comic characters, described as “hideous pictures, and doggerel verse.”

The exception to this holiday homogeneity were novelty “useful item” valentines shaped like combs, soap, breath lozenges, school books and more, accompanied by rhyming hints for the recipient to use the item more often.

75 years ago

Feb. 14, 1950

• Less than a week after returning home, heavy rains and flooding forced Dunklin County families to evacuate a second time. The Daily American Republic reported the Coast Guard had returned to begin water rescues, the Army Engineers were patrolling levees, and the Red Cross was gearing back up to aid displaced families.

50 years ago

Feb. 14, 1975

• Poplar Bluff Senior High School is doing its best to prepare students for the workforce.

A DAR feature for National Vocation Education Week highlighted the district’s vocational and career education classes, which job placement counselor Frieda Park said are designed “to graduate students prepared for employment at the ‘entry’ level.”

She added, “Vocational education...is now gaining attention because educators realize that a successful career is the real object of all education.”

Furthermore, Southeast Missouri State University found eight of 10 students were enrolled in college prep courses, but six of those wouldn’t attend college. This, and predictions of declining degree requirements for jobs, led Poplar Bluff schools to prioritize students’ career training. Vocational classes were wrapped into required academic courses and ranged from clerical and secreterial practices to applied electricity and woodworking.