Mother's Day 1926

One hundred years ago – just like today – everyone was making preparations for Mother's Day. Below is an ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on May 4, 1926.

It's a nice ad, apparently sponsored by all Lorain florists (even though none are listed). What's clever is that, in addition to sending your mother flowers, the ad encourages you to wear either a colored flower if your mother is living or a white one in memory of her. 

I won't be wearing a flower this Sunday but I will stop at Elmwood with some flowers. I've been going to Flowerama since Off Broadway Floral closed. Flowerama does a nice job and the service there is great. But I miss the Off Broadway people.

Anyway, in 1926 there was no 1-800-FLOWERS. So if your mother lived "in a distant city," you had to send them by telegraph!

On Saturday, May 8, 1926, the Lorain Journal ran a nice tribute to all mothers on the front page. The copy under the illustration is pretty charming and heartfelt.

It's interesting that the artist's rendering of a typical mother back then depicts her as a kindly, white-haired old lady. The drawing reminded me of the sweet grandmas that appeared in a few Little Rascals movie shorts. They were always being nice to the gang, putting up with their shenanigans, while the plot of the story had her in danger of getting swindled by crooks.

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Other stories on the front page include: a protest at the Statue of Liberty; no B.V.D.s for the prisoners in Lorain's city jail; a heavy load of mail due to Mother's Day letters, cards and packages; a tornado strikes Okfuskee, Oklahoma; and a raid on a home on E. 28th street results in the discovery of "two complete stills, 400 gallons of rye mash in process of fermentation and 130 gallons of wine."