They are starting to run out, 23 years later, but you can still get some old style happy b-day cards at our very own McKay Monkman Drugs, an old style pharmacy still miraculously in business. It’s a place you might not even notice as you wait for the bus on Daly and Broadway, but within those stucco walls there are a few things for sale, my favorite being the rack of cards..
..over at the far corner of the shop. They’ve been there for years and a glance at the designs can verify the age. Looks like the stock is finally starting to bring returns on the initial investment, as the supply has dwindled dramatically from the last time I checked.
There are still a few worthwhile cards from which to pick, just make sure you don’t get one that’s really dusty and beat up.
I chose this masterpiece, inside it reads “I nearly bought you one, Happy Birthday”. Copyrighted in MCMLXXXIV that makes it more than 20 years old, and at only $1 it’s still a bargain! But I only buy these for the designs, it’s not cuz i’m cheap, not at all. Get yours while supplies last! (That might mean a decade or two.)
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Over a decade ago now, I happened by a fancy card shop in Oakland that was setting out a box of 80s-era cards on the curb. I took the whole box and carted them around for years, using them occasionally because they were so off the hook, but eventually sense got the better of me— I hate it when it does that!— and I got rid of all of them except one that I have to this day. The front is a colored pencil drawing of a happy cop with a mustache, giving the “stop” hand signal. The inside says, “Police have a happy birthday.”
I mean, who on earth can you give a card like that to?
I love the standardized length of these jumbo cards. When did square become cool. I want to go back to rectangular.
El Chavo,
Good stuff! Now I have another image of McKay-Monkman pharmacy in my mind, to add to this one:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics08/00013842.jpg
Lex
los sobres parecen estar miados lol