I like to imagine that, whenever there is a reason for Stuart to send a card of some sort, he goes to the 1970s card vault to select the perfect one that will be most traumatising to the friend in question.
The videos where Ashen's ends up laughing hysterically over the ridiculous shit he's reviewing are always my favorite. It isn't really common but it's always a treat.
I've got to say, though: Impressive print-quality on the cards. Maybe they're a tenth of a femto-meter thick, but 50 years later the... horrifically bad photography... has been stunningly preserved. (for better or for worse)
As a 60s-70s style enthusiast, these cards made me horrified like everyone else but also swoon a bit over the clothes, especially the one with the 3 girls and their amazing pants!
Seeing this I'm beginning to understand why "Make your own greeting card" software was so popular 30 years ago. Thank goodness such cards have generally improved these days.
I still use "snail mail," regularly, and it can still be difficult to find decent greeting cards. And being a guy, doubly so, as most are definitely designed for use by women. Or garish. As I tend to send out around 20 at a time, I keep looking regularly, year-round.
@@paulherman5822 you might need to look for smaller companies producing cards, or individual artists on Etsy or whatnot. Like most of the ones you find at the drugstore or whatever are going to be shitty, but I've seen some really nice cards in like indie bookstores around my state. My dad always gets ones with woodcut art for my mom and that's a pretty masculine art form lol
@@riabouchinska I search the internet regularly. I can find them, it's just availability. But, even eBay can have nice, and Amazon. Good thing I'm disabled, and have time to hunt. 😉
For the sister card, remove the birthday text put a title, maybe a quote, a author name and a blue/grey filter. You have the cover to a thriller/mystery novel.
That "10 Today" card with the kid fishing looks like one of those pictures that shows up in a Bigfoot documentary. Probably followed by the voiceover saying "This child would be 10 today if Bigfoot hadn't appeared out of the reeds and carted him off" without even considering how weird it was that someone was taking pictures of the kid right then and there.
Look at the demon kangaroo in greyscale and you will see exactly why they had such colours. Affordable colour photography was still a recent thing and studios would probably still have all their backgrounds and props kicking around from when they were doing exclusivley black and white work. Horrible bright yellow looks whiter than actual white. Was the same with tv at the time - if you had to record in both black and white and colour, careful choices had to be made so that both pictures looked acceptable. In the case of this photo, they chose poorly...
It's why in modern software, when turning an image black and white, you're allowed to select what grey value a certain colour range has. Take a picture with solid, garish colours, and then map appropriately.
Interesting, I knew black and white television had to be shot with certain lighting and colours so it would look proper, I didn't realize that photography was the same and that the choices made for bw photos would effect colour photos. I just thought it was purely horrible taste of the entire decade... granted I still think the 70s was a graphic design and fashion disaster, but at least some of the garish yellowy items make sense with your explanation.
I can attest that the 1970's were the Brownest and Yellowest decade. However, along with Earth Tone counterparts Rust and Avocado, there was a brief period from 1973-1974 where everything else was Lime Green and/or Lemon Yellow.
@@tncorgi92 Was it the Western Electric 500 or Princess? Those were the phones everybody had (and paid monthly fees for) until the Bell System was broken up for anti-trust violations in the 1980's. Honestly, I'd rather go with the monopoly. At least I never had a dropped call, and my phone was always powered, even when the electricity went out!
That's because with each turn of the decade the first couple years hang onto the last couple years of the previous decade. The early 70's was still the late 60's. The early 80's still looked like the late 70's.
Think about this, there was a kid during WWII, who dreamed someday of being a poet, and ended up writing these cards. With that in mind they all read as a desperate cry for help.
Tbh if German bombers blew my house up and killed my dad and then my brother got shot in a country I'd never been to I reckon I'd go a bit mental as well
Imagine. After the war, the US got all the German Scientists, the USSR got all the German Tech, the French got their land back... ...And the British got a bunch of traumatized greeting card-writers from the burning ruins of Dresden.
The cards my parents exchanged in the 60s were huge, elaborate, and adorned with bows, lace & cellophane. Their 70s cards were printed on thin paper with some very bizarre pictures. The 80s card got more elaborate again.
Not many people watched this video, but I REALLY hope Ashens does another. Laughed so hard I was crying, absolutely lost it at the the gunbelt/rifle daughter one.
My parents bought their house in the late 70's and never updated the downstairs rumpus room. It stayed the same until the divorce and then we moved in 2000. Fake wood panelling on the wall, couch with huge palm leaf print, carpet squares, macrame owl, rotary phone and rabbit ear aerial TV. Everything was a different shade of brown. It was amazing because my mother was picky about the state of the rest of the house but this room was my father's.
I’m more intrigued as to what the hell a rumpus room is. Also, saying “downstairs” rumpus room implies you have an upstairs one as well. Or maybe multiple rumpus rooms. So many questions.
Such generic photos, they can be used for anything. Catalogs, inspirational posters, religious works, grade school textbooks, travel brochures... you name it.
The stamp collector card isn't realistic enough. The rabbit needs to be standing on top of the folder because it refuses to sit on the slightly cold table
@@kevinm5940 Yeah, the jello salads were more of a '50s thing than '70s. Although the '70s had some equally disturbing fare: ham and banana hollandaise is a good (or rather, bad) example.
Thanks Stuart, I grew up in the 70's and after watching this video I'm having flashbacks to brown furniture, platform shoes, flared trousers, horrible patterned carpets and equally nasty wallpaper. Thankfully I didn't receive anything as horrific as those birthday cards :-)
Most British cars, especially ones from British Leyland, seemed to be painted from the same faecal colour palette. Or blue. I knew several people whose Austin 1100 was painted in 'Baby's First Shit Brown'. You'll know it if you see it.
10.00 The girl on the card with the bright red pants and ribbons on her curly pigtails makes her look like Nellie Olson to me, off of that show Little House on the prairie. It was a show back in the 1970s based off of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books she wrote back in the 1800s. I still watch that show when i can catch it on some tv network that plays re-runs on Sunday sometimes, or watch them on UA-cam. Still a very good wholesome family friendly show! Love it!
Based on my birthday cards from the same era, Mom scrape booked them, these are really atypical even for the 70s. Most all of the under 5 cards were just brightly colored numbers, sometimes with glitter. Never saw so much photography from the 1970s greeting cards.
Nothing says the 70's more than block-foiled embossed cards with crinkle-cut edges. If you don't know why the poodle is sat next to a romany cartwheel, then you probably didn't live through 70's home decor trends! I'm only surprised it wasn't the raffia donkey they brought back from Spain.
Oh gosh, I'm having flashbacks to my parent's friends houses in the 80s when they still had these wooden wheels and stone fireplaces that filled a whole wall.
I feel like, rather than a hula hoop, that freakish kangaroo is inside a summoning circle to prevent it eating all of our souls! Hehehe awesome video, as always. Thanks for all the awesome content. Your vids always brighten my day.
The wife birthday card is especially awkward considering that's the exact same breed of dog as Precious from Silence Of The Lambs. Oh yes, Buffalo Bill will indeed show you all the love in his heart.
Athens, awesome video as usual!! I thought I would recommend looking at a book from about 1968 called “Counting Rhyme: Ten Little Indians”, and this is a children’s book and the illustrations are all photos on miniature tableaux - and the characters are all RUBBER PUPPETS. It’s very disturbing and capable of inducing nightmares,
I was born in 1974 so it's a wonder we never had a house fire from one of those highly flammable cheap stuffed animals that I'm sure I had back then. Also everyone smoked, it's a wonder that didn't start a fire as well.
Seventies child here too, it did seem like everyone smoked and had dangerous stuff like kerosene heaters and flammable clothing/bedding near open flames. It's a wonder we ever made it to adulthood without a stay in the burn ward.
1:12 every single TV show, movie, sitcom in the 70's had an English Sheepdog in it. All the time. I have no idea why it was a fad like that. Then all of a sudden they all disappeared and you hardly ever see anyone with an English Sheepdog anymore.
Yes 😂 it’s basically bizarre but true. ‘Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World’ seemed to be repeated constantly. There were also a lot more rattlesnakes and quicksand
Note that I'm American, so that gun picture is a bit different for me than for you British, since we're the ones who actually have to live with those gun-billies.
The little girl is bringing her father's slippers to him. It use to be a thing that when daddy got home, someone would get to bring his slippers to him after a long day at work. And the incentive was when daddy would thank them, getting the attention from daddy, because he was always out working so kids hardly spent time with him.
I just realized, those red slippers look very much like Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes. Also, make the girl's eyes bigger and reduce the detail on the rest of her face and it could pass for a moé anime.
Or the horrifically insincere "What is a Mother?" type cards that seem to have become a thing over the last few years. Every time I see one of those, I throw up a little bit in my mouth...
@@333darthste last few years? I think those sappy kind of cards have been a thing since the 1970s at least, we just saw a bunch of the retrospectively weird, awkward ones. The boring "what is a mother" poems inside a cover of yellowed and faded flowers just wouldn't make the cut.
These cards were deemed to be quite luxurious in the 70's. You can tell because the title on the front of the card is embossed. Or rather, in relief, with the lettering in a bold metallic, or glittered colour. The normal, bog-standard cards were no thicker than newspaper, (positively translucent), and were bought in packs of 20 from a mail order company called Studio Cards, (yes, there was a company you could buy cards from in bulk), out of a catalogue. These cards are the kind you would get from your grandparents who wanted to give the impression that you were, 'special', as they cost a bit more than a few pence to make, and had to be bough individually, usually from the local newsagent. I may have received that, '10 today', one, myself. Although, it's hard to say, as they were pretty generic, having some kind of, 'special', activity on them. That mini Björk holding the giant slippers was atypical of the cards given to girls under the age of 5. I'm sure there's some kind of symbolism going on with it. Either the child is exceedingly diminutive or her mother suffers from giantism and has massive feet. Or maybe even both. I wonder if that's a thing in Iceland?
Such a surreal collection of cards. Though I will confess I have a weakness for the weird patterned carpets they had in the 70's. Remember the carpets from the Overlook Hotel?
I may be wrong but I seem to remember cards and stationery being lightweight so they cost less postage to send, especially for "air mail". In case you wanted to include a separate note or some currency with your card.
@@tncorgi92 yes, there was special thin paper and envelopes for air mail. I presume you can still get it, though, of course, it's so much easier to email and, sadly, people don't write letters as much nowadays. Also, I know that when I had penpals, I'd choose lightweight stationery so that I could include other things in the envelope.
People have no idea the mental gymnastics you had to go through to send a letter back then. I collect old gift cards so when I'm buying them, people ship them as letters, sometimes in a greeting card, and it takes at least 2 or 3 stamps to send them now. @@JudithARobinson
It almost seems like photographers sold their random photographs to greeting card companies in order to be able to afford more film (it was expensive), and the greeting card companies have tried to use as many images as possible in order to get their money's worth. And also show off their photographic greeting card capabilities? I was born at the end of the 80s, and the only photographs I've seen on cards were either from make-your-own cards, or the ones where there was a cut-out to insert your Santa photo to make it a Christmas card.
just when I had sat down to watch that video you uploaded and it's gone. Hope it's back up soon and whatever issue there was can be resolved easily! Also- looking forward to this fondu collab, in case the suggestions weren't seen there, Scotch Egg. I could have chose a worse egg you have to admit
Up until my Grandmother’s death in 2006, her kitchen was straight out of the 60’s, complete with avocado green appliances, goldenrod yellow and cream patterned wallpaper and ceramic canisters where she kept her flower and sugar. The only “upgrades” she had were a dishwasher and a microwave from the late 70’s and the microwave was put into the wall above the kitchen table. You could see it from behind the wall, going down the stairs on a shelf my grandpa built. There was also an old rotary landline phone on the kitchen wall for a while, but it was replaced to a digital one when it broke.
My aunt's house was equally hideous. Ugly yellow linoleum tile in the kitchen and bathroom, burgundy red shag carpet in the living room, and a pea-soup green shower in the bathroom.
For that second card, when I saw the girl on the right I said out loud "Oh my god I love her hair." The "Birthday Wishes Dear Daughter" cards look like a cellophane burn blend. A cheap but ultimately destructive way of mixing two traditional film reels back in the day. Though I've never seen it used outside of movies... I think the third one was supposed to be a "country bumpkin" type girl dreaming of being a proper city lady when she grew up. The final image is, I think, supposed to be endearing? Those slippers were a very popular design of women's house slippers in the mid to late '70s. So she's bringing her mother her slippers for the morning or something. Although her mother must be seven and a half feet tall with the size of the things. Also this entire thing is a treat to me, considering I have this weird genuine appreciation and affection for '70s design, decor, and fashion.
The weird photography, especially of girls, is pretty much right on for what little I've seen of "professional" artist photography in the 70's. One of my aunts had a boyfriend at some point who considered himself such an artist, and the photos were pretty weird, with a lot of odd placement of close-up and far-away objects, bizarre cropping/framing choices, and my aunt was smiling in exactly zero of the pictures featuring her. Sure, you don't have to smile in pics, but her stoneface looked really overdone and I remember it being explained to me that that was how the self-professed photographer thought it should be done. Edit: The hillbilly card (and that whole series) appears to be the birthday girl dreaming of being a different person. So she's not wanting to shoot her mother, she's wishing she were a proper lady... or some crap.
I've imagined a whole backstory for Stamp Boy. He's letting his rabbit eat some of the stamps so that his other stamps will be rarer and therefore more valuable. It's the only reason the rabbit is on the table- anyone who knows rabbits knows they eat paper with an alarming speed.
That sofa looks very much like the material on a sofa we had in the 1980s. In fact our cats are still using at least one of the cushions from it on the solarium now.
My interpretation I think the daughter on the rock card is supposed to be her dreaming of being grown up and hanging out with her hunky fishing boyfriend, whilst wearing the latest in fashion trends. The red pants daughter design possibly a girl fed up of being seen as childish in her matching red colours and clogs, dreams of being taken seriously in her monochromatic, serious business outfit and holds up balloons atop a mountain in an act of defiance. As if to say 'I need no balloons for I am a woman today!'. The last daughter card design of hillbilly style on a log, is a wild girl (bit of a ruffian) who wonders if her life will be improved by one day becoming a lady instead. She contemplates if she should give into societal norms and don hot pink, or stick with her wild side with a rootin tootin gun for security and comfort.
5:50 "Here's wishing you a birthday". Not a happy one. Just a birthday. I don't know why I find that so funny. I think it's because I've literally never seen someone just wishing someone else "a birthday" before. It's always a happy birthday. Or maybe it's because it could be interpreted as saying "I wish you had a birthday and we didn't have to guess".
12:00 Okay, so the daughter with the shotgun and bandolier is some sort of colonial settler or something and she's dreaming of a life of luxury as a wealthy socialite.
9:30 Ashens thought it was just a fisherman? I thought it was her dreaming of being able to spend time with her father. "Sorry my Dear Daughter, you get a card in the mail again instead, Happy Birthday"
I like to imagine that, whenever there is a reason for Stuart to send a card of some sort, he goes to the 1970s card vault to select the perfect one that will be most traumatising to the friend in question.
traumatizing cards are the best cards (I once made a Donald Trump birthday card for a friend lol)
These cards have preserved their color a lot better than photographs do.
They were buried in someone's drawer somewhere away from the light.
@@6581punk Not just that. The printing processes are WAAAAAAAAAY different.
Too bad they're of people that the card owners don't know...
@Michael she was young when she put them in.
@Michael no need for a wait, funny.
"10 Today" has a very strong "last confirmed sighting of this individual" energy
@Natasha The card at 9:10 sure reminds me of that.
@Natasha kek
I hope whoever took him used him well
No it doesn't
The card should have written on it 'Would have been' before the "10 Today".
The videos where Ashen's ends up laughing hysterically over the ridiculous shit he's reviewing are always my favorite. It isn't really common but it's always a treat.
Agree. The plastic violin is my all time favorite.
Agreed. These cards would benefit from an act or talk like a fool key.
@@DeDeNoM YES who could ever forget "wonderful sound, strange shape"
Antonio Stella Bottom Tile is my hero
“bizarrely-proportioned aunt may figurine” is my favorite
I've got to say, though: Impressive print-quality on the cards. Maybe they're a tenth of a femto-meter thick, but 50 years later the... horrifically bad photography... has been stunningly preserved.
(for better or for worse)
To be fair the forest sister was a pretty good photo, just horribly inappropriate.
Stunning is definitely the right word.
*femtometer
I mean, unless you write "centi-meter" :P
@@Liggliluff fem-tometer
I chalk it up to the fact that these are cursed objects containing the souls of the damned trapped for all eternity on tissue-thin greeting cards.
As a 60s-70s style enthusiast, these cards made me horrified like everyone else but also swoon a bit over the clothes, especially the one with the 3 girls and their amazing pants!
The combination of the pants and heeled shoes always made people's legs look inhumanly long.
The house aesthetics were questionable, but I agree. Definitely something to be said for bell bottoms and platforms!
Seeing this I'm beginning to understand why "Make your own greeting card" software was so popular 30 years ago. Thank goodness such cards have generally improved these days.
paha the boomerware era
@Michael
Usually just abstract graphics and a short but sensible greeting. Rather boring, really.
I still use "snail mail," regularly, and it can still be difficult to find decent greeting cards. And being a guy, doubly so, as most are definitely designed for use by women. Or garish. As I tend to send out around 20 at a time, I keep looking regularly, year-round.
@@paulherman5822 you might need to look for smaller companies producing cards, or individual artists on Etsy or whatnot. Like most of the ones you find at the drugstore or whatever are going to be shitty, but I've seen some really nice cards in like indie bookstores around my state. My dad always gets ones with woodcut art for my mom and that's a pretty masculine art form lol
@@riabouchinska I search the internet regularly. I can find them, it's just availability. But, even eBay can have nice, and Amazon. Good thing I'm disabled, and have time to hunt. 😉
For the sister card, remove the birthday text put a title, maybe a quote, a author name and a blue/grey filter. You have the cover to a thriller/mystery novel.
I agree. I swear I've seen that picture when I was younger on the cover of some young readers novel.
Could have been a homicide case...
This implies that the reverse could be done to make more greeting cards for sisters... 🤔
That "10 Today" card with the kid fishing looks like one of those pictures that shows up in a Bigfoot documentary. Probably followed by the voiceover saying "This child would be 10 today if Bigfoot hadn't appeared out of the reeds and carted him off" without even considering how weird it was that someone was taking pictures of the kid right then and there.
Happy birthday from Unsolved Mysteries!
As an American: "I'm a comin' for ya mama!" was just perfect. Bravo. XD
Lost it at that point LOL
The final one looks like a child holding on to the shoes and memories of a deceased parent. Happy birthtday indeed
Look at the demon kangaroo in greyscale and you will see exactly why they had such colours. Affordable colour photography was still a recent thing and studios would probably still have all their backgrounds and props kicking around from when they were doing exclusivley black and white work. Horrible bright yellow looks whiter than actual white. Was the same with tv at the time - if you had to record in both black and white and colour, careful choices had to be made so that both pictures looked acceptable. In the case of this photo, they chose poorly...
It's why in modern software, when turning an image black and white, you're allowed to select what grey value a certain colour range has. Take a picture with solid, garish colours, and then map appropriately.
Interesting, I knew black and white television had to be shot with certain lighting and colours so it would look proper, I didn't realize that photography was the same and that the choices made for bw photos would effect colour photos.
I just thought it was purely horrible taste of the entire decade... granted I still think the 70s was a graphic design and fashion disaster, but at least some of the garish yellowy items make sense with your explanation.
I went off and did that, and frankly it just made the damn thing scarier.
15:49 made me think of an inspirational quote:
"Shoes." -- Jon Pertwee, Doctor Who 1970
I have a tear in my eye.
I can attest that the 1970's were the Brownest and Yellowest decade. However, along with Earth Tone counterparts Rust and Avocado, there was a brief period from 1973-1974 where everything else was Lime Green and/or Lemon Yellow.
My grandmother's house inside looked like the one from The Brady Bunch. She even had an avocado colored phone with about a 10 foot cord.
@@tncorgi92 Was it the Western Electric 500 or Princess? Those were the phones everybody had (and paid monthly fees for) until the Bell System was broken up for anti-trust violations in the 1980's. Honestly, I'd rather go with the monopoly. At least I never had a dropped call, and my phone was always powered, even when the electricity went out!
@@tncorgi92 The Western Electric 500 and Princess models were in almost every American household until the 1980s. What kind did your Gran have?
That's because with each turn of the decade the first couple years hang onto the last couple years of the previous decade. The early 70's was still the late 60's. The early 80's still looked like the late 70's.
Regardless of everything else, that sheepdog has a fabulous hairstyle.
Think about this, there was a kid during WWII, who dreamed someday of being a poet, and ended up writing these cards. With that in mind they all read as a desperate cry for help.
Tbh if German bombers blew my house up and killed my dad and then my brother got shot in a country I'd never been to I reckon I'd go a bit mental as well
Imagine. After the war, the US got all the German Scientists, the USSR got all the German Tech, the French got their land back...
...And the British got a bunch of traumatized greeting card-writers from the burning ruins of Dresden.
The cards my parents exchanged in the 60s were huge, elaborate, and adorned with bows, lace & cellophane. Their 70s cards were printed on thin paper with some very bizarre pictures. The 80s card got more elaborate again.
@jabroni destroyer We had no memes back then
I hope he comes back with some 1980s cards, I'm sure there's enough garish craziness from that decade to fuel another 17 minutes at least.
I remember those hideous 80s cards, they used to have like weird cushioned bits covered with cheap satin 😂
The 90's cards got injected with those little music box gizmos and played annoying tunes
Not many people watched this video, but I REALLY hope Ashens does another. Laughed so hard I was crying, absolutely lost it at the the gunbelt/rifle daughter one.
Nothing says Happy Birthday like a bad painting of Bjork in a shoe shop.
VIOLENTLY HAAAAPPY, BECAUSE IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAAAAY
My parents bought their house in the late 70's and never updated the downstairs rumpus room. It stayed the same until the divorce and then we moved in 2000.
Fake wood panelling on the wall, couch with huge palm leaf print, carpet squares, macrame owl, rotary phone and rabbit ear aerial TV. Everything was a different shade of brown. It was amazing because my mother was picky about the state of the rest of the house but this room was my father's.
Rumpus room??? What in god's name do you do in there, does it involve rumps???
@@ASBO_LUTELY Rumpus sounds like the name of a horrible goblin from a fairytale.
I’m more intrigued as to what the hell a rumpus room is. Also, saying “downstairs” rumpus room implies you have an upstairs one as well. Or maybe multiple rumpus rooms. So many questions.
It's a shrine to the dark lord Rumpus.
I don't know what a rumpus room is, and yet I know I want one.
Such generic photos, they can be used for anything. Catalogs, inspirational posters, religious works, grade school textbooks, travel brochures... you name it.
I can't explain why but the poodle picture brings me immense joy. It's almost anti humour and I absolutely love it.
I know! I laughed like an idiot at it, just because it's so weird and random.
The stamp collector card isn't realistic enough. The rabbit needs to be standing on top of the folder because it refuses to sit on the slightly cold table
True xD
and nibbling everything in sight and pushing shit off the table
The kid is feeding his older brother's rare collection of stamps, to the rabbit, in order to fill the album up with his own collection of rabbit tods.
And dropping rabbit turds everywhere as they are wont to do.
Therapist: "Hillbilly ashens isn't real, he cant hurt you"
Hillbilly ashens: 12:13
British people's interpretations of American hillbillys will never not be funny.
As someone born in the 70s watching this on my birthday is making me far too happy. Love the videos.
Happy birthday! :-)
@@Thermite1000 Thank you!
Awww, Happy Birthday, Shawn! 😊🥳🎂🎉🎁
@@beautyforashes2022 Thank you. None of the cards I got were near this good though! Lol
Happy birthday!
To be honest, that one girls' patchwork pants were absolutely awesome and I'd totally wear those.
That patchwork pattern came back in the late 80s and early 90's with the New Jack Swing era before it vanished again.
I shouldn't have watched this just before bed, I'm going to be having 70's themed nightmares now.
70s nightmares are the worst nightmares. Especially the one about the tuna/Jello salad in a pineapple-shaped mold with mayonnaise frosting.
@@singaporesammy that's 1950s, surely?
@@kevinm5940
Yeah, the jello salads were more of a '50s thing than '70s. Although the '70s had some equally disturbing fare: ham and banana hollandaise is a good (or rather, bad) example.
@@GeorgiaGeorgette why did you remind me of the existence of that
I too wake screaming from dreams of garish wallpaper and lava lamps
The 3rd daughter dreams of being the Queen. She just has to shoot her way through the line of succession.
Thanks Stuart, I grew up in the 70's and after watching this video I'm having flashbacks to brown furniture, platform shoes, flared trousers, horrible patterned carpets and equally nasty wallpaper. Thankfully I didn't receive anything as horrific as those birthday cards :-)
You aren't alone mate. This has bought back memories for me too.... 🤣
I was not around in the 70's but these cards feel familiar somehow
And don't forget the hideous curtains. :)
@@frankowalker4662 Yes, it all clashed horribly with the avocado green coloured bathroom
Most British cars, especially ones from British Leyland, seemed to be painted from the same faecal colour palette. Or blue. I knew several people whose Austin 1100 was painted in 'Baby's First Shit Brown'. You'll know it if you see it.
10.00 The girl on the card with the bright red pants and ribbons on her curly pigtails makes her look like Nellie Olson to me, off of that show Little House on the prairie. It was a show back in the 1970s based off of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books she wrote back in the 1800s. I still watch that show when i can catch it on some tv network that plays re-runs on Sunday sometimes, or watch them on UA-cam. Still a very good wholesome family friendly show! Love it!
I feel like printing out the cartoon child one and writing "Birthday", then just sending it off to family...... See which one gets paranoid
Blimey. I can't stop watching Ashens. I've seen him on recommendations for years. Never watched a video till a few days ago. Mans got content.
I absolutely died laughing at the "I'mma put a hole in your head and then you'll be with Jesus!" line. 🤣🤣🥯
Based on my birthday cards from the same era, Mom scrape booked them, these are really atypical even for the 70s. Most all of the under 5 cards were just brightly colored numbers, sometimes with glitter. Never saw so much photography from the 1970s greeting cards.
Yeah since most are empty, I think they're old surplus stock. AKA even back then they knew were that bad that no one wanted to buy them
How often did she scrape the books together, and what sounds did it make???
My mom saved all her kids cards too. 70s 80s 90s. They look nothing like these goofy ones in the video.
It was my birthday this week. I'm taking this video as my birthday card from Ashens.
And many moooooooore!
His voice for the girl with the gun was hilarious
Nothing says the 70's more than block-foiled embossed cards with crinkle-cut edges. If you don't know why the poodle is sat next to a romany cartwheel, then you probably didn't live through 70's home decor trends! I'm only surprised it wasn't the raffia donkey they brought back from Spain.
Or wine bottle covered in raffia? 😊
Oh gosh, I'm having flashbacks to my parent's friends houses in the 80s when they still had these wooden wheels and stone fireplaces that filled a whole wall.
Rafflesia?
I feel like, rather than a hula hoop, that freakish kangaroo is inside a summoning circle to prevent it eating all of our souls!
Hehehe awesome video, as always. Thanks for all the awesome content. Your vids always brighten my day.
The sister in the woods card should be a bereavement card.
We are deeply sorry for your loss. This is the last known photo of your sister before she got lost in the woods and was found dead days later.
lol a new line of Missing Persons cards
Sincerely Yours, Ted Bundy. @@trevorhaddox6884
My favorite thing about this channel is that any video you watch could be from yesterday or 9 YEARS AGO.
The wife birthday card is especially awkward considering that's the exact same breed of dog as Precious from Silence Of The Lambs. Oh yes, Buffalo Bill will indeed show you all the love in his heart.
Now I just want somebody to give that card with some lotion in a basket
Send the card to Senator Ruth Martin.
Athens, awesome video as usual!! I thought I would recommend looking at a book from about 1968 called “Counting Rhyme: Ten Little Indians”, and this is a children’s book and the illustrations are all photos on miniature tableaux - and the characters are all RUBBER PUPPETS. It’s very disturbing and capable of inducing nightmares,
I was born in 1974 so it's a wonder we never had a house fire from one of those highly flammable cheap stuffed animals that I'm sure I had back then. Also everyone smoked, it's a wonder that didn't start a fire as well.
Seventies child here too, it did seem like everyone smoked and had dangerous stuff like kerosene heaters and flammable clothing/bedding near open flames. It's a wonder we ever made it to adulthood without a stay in the burn ward.
1:12 every single TV show, movie, sitcom in the 70's had an English Sheepdog in it. All the time. I have no idea why it was a fad like that. Then all of a sudden they all disappeared and you hardly ever see anyone with an English Sheepdog anymore.
Yes 😂 it’s basically bizarre but true.
‘Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World’ seemed to be repeated constantly.
There were also a lot more rattlesnakes and quicksand
I kept my composure until "I'm-a comin' for ya, Mama!" and then I lost it. 🤣
Note that I'm American, so that gun picture is a bit different for me than for you British, since we're the ones who actually have to live with those gun-billies.
12:14 - 12:23 absolutely killed me. I think that's one of the funniest slightly tangential jokes in Ashens history
_"Honking my chuff"_ is now my new favourite phrase.
The birthday mandate kangaroo reminds me of a dream while falling asleep on an edible watching doctor who.
3:51 I love this part so much
Never seen this one before! I love these kind of videos where Stuart looks at weird shit and laughs :D
“Also here is a poodle and a lot of negative space” really got me.
"Hand it over, that thing... your dark soul, for my lady's get well greeting" - Card Knight Gael
The little girl is bringing her father's slippers to him. It use to be a thing that when daddy got home, someone would get to bring his slippers to him after a long day at work. And the incentive was when daddy would thank them, getting the attention from daddy, because he was always out working so kids hardly spent time with him.
@Future Pants no, that was just the 70's. people just didn't always wear shoes. they were still on the hippie/nature crap.
I just realized, those red slippers look very much like Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes.
Also, make the girl's eyes bigger and reduce the detail on the rest of her face and it could pass for a moé anime.
@Future Pants you’re overthinking dude
@@theghostofthomasjenkins9643 Naturslism is still a valid Ideology, you will not supress us!
@@aturchomicz821 you're on the computer, lol. where do they grow wild these days?
Apparently, David Lynch used to design greeting cards in the 70s, and I wasn't even aware of it.
Best video of Ashens' in a while. There must be more of these!
Top tier Ashens quote: “wHy Is ThE pOoDlE nExT tO a WaGoN wHeEl?!?!”
This has to become a series, its one of your best!
12:13 - I'm amazed at Stuart's spot-on American accent. You could give Hugh Laurie a run for his money.
I'll say this much, those cards were still better than the soulless modern cards, especially those rancid "adult" cartoon ones.
''shoebox'' greetings. plain classless trite garbage. gimme sparkling florals and senseless drivel Every Time, for my Special Days
Or the horrifically insincere "What is a Mother?" type cards that seem to have become a thing over the last few years.
Every time I see one of those, I throw up a little bit in my mouth...
@@333darthste last few years? I think those sappy kind of cards have been a thing since the 1970s at least, we just saw a bunch of the retrospectively weird, awkward ones. The boring "what is a mother" poems inside a cover of yellowed and faded flowers just wouldn't make the cut.
Ashens videos bring me so much comfort. Watching a few videos is part of my nightly routine, its almost like ASMR to me
These cards were deemed to be quite luxurious in the 70's. You can tell because the title on the front of the card is embossed. Or rather, in relief, with the lettering in a bold metallic, or glittered colour. The normal, bog-standard cards were no thicker than newspaper, (positively translucent), and were bought in packs of 20 from a mail order company called Studio Cards, (yes, there was a company you could buy cards from in bulk), out of a catalogue.
These cards are the kind you would get from your grandparents who wanted to give the impression that you were, 'special', as they cost a bit more than a few pence to make, and had to be bough individually, usually from the local newsagent. I may have received that, '10 today', one, myself. Although, it's hard to say, as they were pretty generic, having some kind of, 'special', activity on them.
That mini Björk holding the giant slippers was atypical of the cards given to girls under the age of 5. I'm sure there's some kind of symbolism going on with it. Either the child is exceedingly diminutive or her mother suffers from giantism and has massive feet. Or maybe even both. I wonder if that's a thing in Iceland?
Such a surreal collection of cards. Though I will confess I have a weakness for the weird patterned carpets they had in the 70's. Remember the carpets from the Overlook Hotel?
Lol I just thought I'm looking at some 70s carpet right now.. Dad bought it and it's so hard wearing it's in its third house. :)
I was born in 1967 and grew up with paper thin cards like this! Now feeling vaguely nostalgic...
I may be wrong but I seem to remember cards and stationery being lightweight so they cost less postage to send, especially for "air mail". In case you wanted to include a separate note or some currency with your card.
@@tncorgi92 yes, there was special thin paper and envelopes for air mail. I presume you can still get it, though, of course, it's so much easier to email and, sadly, people don't write letters as much nowadays. Also, I know that when I had penpals, I'd choose lightweight stationery so that I could include other things in the envelope.
People have no idea the mental gymnastics you had to go through to send a letter back then. I collect old gift cards so when I'm buying them, people ship them as letters, sometimes in a greeting card, and it takes at least 2 or 3 stamps to send them now. @@JudithARobinson
It almost seems like photographers sold their random photographs to greeting card companies in order to be able to afford more film (it was expensive), and the greeting card companies have tried to use as many images as possible in order to get their money's worth. And also show off their photographic greeting card capabilities? I was born at the end of the 80s, and the only photographs I've seen on cards were either from make-your-own cards, or the ones where there was a cut-out to insert your Santa photo to make it a Christmas card.
just when I had sat down to watch that video you uploaded and it's gone. Hope it's back up soon and whatever issue there was can be resolved easily! Also- looking forward to this fondu collab, in case the suggestions weren't seen there, Scotch Egg. I could have chose a worse egg you have to admit
With all the crazy shit going on in the world. A new Ashens video is a very welcome respite. Maximum comfiness.
Always a bastion of Wholesomeness.
Up until my Grandmother’s death in 2006, her kitchen was straight out of the 60’s, complete with avocado green appliances, goldenrod yellow and cream patterned wallpaper and ceramic canisters where she kept her flower and sugar. The only “upgrades” she had were a dishwasher and a microwave from the late 70’s and the microwave was put into the wall above the kitchen table. You could see it from behind the wall, going down the stairs on a shelf my grandpa built. There was also an old rotary landline phone on the kitchen wall for a while, but it was replaced to a digital one when it broke.
I remember my grandparents upgrading their avocado bathroom in the early 00s. There was just something something about avocado in the 70s.
My aunt's house was equally hideous. Ugly yellow linoleum tile in the kitchen and bathroom, burgundy red shag carpet in the living room, and a pea-soup green shower in the bathroom.
also in the 70's with all the "love the earth" hippy stuff, everyone filled their house with enough potted plants and ferns to start a rainforest.
I'm amazed, especially with those 'thought bubble' cards that there was no reference to the number of drugs consumed in the 70's!
The entire set of greetings cards are a qualude dream tbf.
Could be worse. At least none of them are disco themed.
For that second card, when I saw the girl on the right I said out loud "Oh my god I love her hair."
The "Birthday Wishes Dear Daughter" cards look like a cellophane burn blend. A cheap but ultimately destructive way of mixing two traditional film reels back in the day. Though I've never seen it used outside of movies... I think the third one was supposed to be a "country bumpkin" type girl dreaming of being a proper city lady when she grew up.
The final image is, I think, supposed to be endearing? Those slippers were a very popular design of women's house slippers in the mid to late '70s. So she's bringing her mother her slippers for the morning or something. Although her mother must be seven and a half feet tall with the size of the things.
Also this entire thing is a treat to me, considering I have this weird genuine appreciation and affection for '70s design, decor, and fashion.
Words cannot explain the joy i feel when i see a new ashens video in my notifications.
The photos of strangers: inherently creepy
I absolutely love that these cards broke Ashens. He is such joy.
4:20 That Kangaroo looks like it’s been summoned from the seventh circle of Hell.
🤣
I honestly thought the girl on the rock was actually sitting on a cliff contemplating killing herself.
The weird photography, especially of girls, is pretty much right on for what little I've seen of "professional" artist photography in the 70's. One of my aunts had a boyfriend at some point who considered himself such an artist, and the photos were pretty weird, with a lot of odd placement of close-up and far-away objects, bizarre cropping/framing choices, and my aunt was smiling in exactly zero of the pictures featuring her. Sure, you don't have to smile in pics, but her stoneface looked really overdone and I remember it being explained to me that that was how the self-professed photographer thought it should be done.
Edit: The hillbilly card (and that whole series) appears to be the birthday girl dreaming of being a different person. So she's not wanting to shoot her mother, she's wishing she were a proper lady... or some crap.
that final birthday wishes one makes me think like. "Girl in apocalypse dreams of fictional non-apocalpytic life."
Then a deathclaw tears her to shit
Bloody love this channel Hilarity, and infectious laughter for over a decade ❤️
I haven't watched this video yet, but it's certain to be one of my favorites. Ashens on old print media is always a delight.
"10 Today"
That's how many beers the photographer had before cropping the image.
"Avocado colored bathrooms"
so true
Most of these cards seemed quite normal to me, that explains a lot.
Just LOVE your quick wit ! Hilarious 😀
“You’re going to Rand McNally.” This killed me! 😂 When I was school, my friends and I often rode our bicycles near Rand McNally.
Probably my 1st time watching Ashens laughing maniacally while reviewing greeting cards.
Makes me grinning nonstop throughout the video. 😁😁
I've imagined a whole backstory for Stamp Boy. He's letting his rabbit eat some of the stamps so that his other stamps will be rarer and therefore more valuable. It's the only reason the rabbit is on the table- anyone who knows rabbits knows they eat paper with an alarming speed.
Man shits on old stuff for 20 minutes. Love it
"please stop" made me laugh so hard I got a headache
That sofa looks very much like the material on a sofa we had in the 1980s. In fact our cats are still using at least one of the cushions from it on the solarium now.
My interpretation I think the daughter on the rock card is supposed to be her dreaming of being grown up and hanging out with her hunky fishing boyfriend, whilst wearing the latest in fashion trends. The red pants daughter design possibly a girl fed up of being seen as childish in her matching red colours and clogs, dreams of being taken seriously in her monochromatic, serious business outfit and holds up balloons atop a mountain in an act of defiance. As if to say 'I need no balloons for I am a woman today!'. The last daughter card design of hillbilly style on a log, is a wild girl (bit of a ruffian) who wonders if her life will be improved by one day becoming a lady instead. She contemplates if she should give into societal norms and don hot pink, or stick with her wild side with a rootin tootin gun for security and comfort.
14:38 - I love the way they put the 8 on him like a hat and then wrote "today" on his hair in icing.
5:50 "Here's wishing you a birthday".
Not a happy one. Just a birthday. I don't know why I find that so funny.
I think it's because I've literally never seen someone just wishing someone else "a birthday" before. It's always a happy birthday.
Or maybe it's because it could be interpreted as saying "I wish you had a birthday and we didn't have to guess".
But it says "Here's wishing you a birthday that fills you with delight..." so it does make sense. The card doesn't wish the recepiant JUST a birthday.
@@donnylebowski3670 I suppose you're right. I didn't even realize. Good catch my friend.
12:00 Okay, so the daughter with the shotgun and bandolier is some sort of colonial settler or something and she's dreaming of a life of luxury as a wealthy socialite.
OK, 'honking my chuff' is now my quote of the decade XD
I've actually never heard Stuart laugh this hard
Watch the Aunt May toy figure video, he absolutely loses it
The 70's, the cursed era of photography.
9:30 Ashens thought it was just a fisherman? I thought it was her dreaming of being able to spend time with her father. "Sorry my Dear Daughter, you get a card in the mail again instead, Happy Birthday"
To be honest, it looks more like a portal to another dimension is opening.
@@kevinm5940 lol it does look like that too
The hillbilly one doubled me over out of the chair. (I live in the south. You have no idea how accurate you were...)
I have a pair of trousers of that material and colour like the sofa in the 70's. In fact I still wear them on a Friday night.
My Grandma specilises in giving out cards this bad. She probably bought a bulk lot back in the 70's.
And still has a billion more left