Sex and the Single GrandMa



May 15, 2005 -- As much as myths would have people believe that life and sex end at 65, a larger section of our population know that "while every new generation believes they invented sex, a generation that knew about it had to precede them." (Vanna Bonta, American poet)

So when Betty Perry, an actress who's played the Queen Mum for Pepsi and a heartland grandma for York Peppermint Patties, was inspired to launch a new line of greeting cards, fun, humor and sex were not off limits. Nor are they off-color, on the contrary, it's life in living color. In a swirl of colorful pageantry photographed by Grammy-nominee songwriter Jan Buckingham, the Betty Perry Collection shouts a new view of old age.

"That's the biggest one I've ever seen, and what balls! You know how to decorate a tree!" one holiday card exclaims.

Betty Perry, who looks every bit the sweet apple-pie baking grandma, and drives a hot red racecar, is here to say, "There are no wrinkles on my soul."

In all fairness, life, hip and cool are not the monopoly of a small age group, particularly when the concepts were created for marketing purposes. Anyone feeling 'old' should consider that youth culture is a recent invention of the 20th Century. In 1947, the Encyclopedia Britannica identified 'teenager' as a new word that was coined in 1944.

If greeting cards can tell the story with Happy Birthday, Congratulations and Thank You, a human universality becomes apparent that transcends the flimsy barriers between decades.

The Betty Perry Collection will premiere for new buyers at the 59th National Stationery Show in New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center May 15-18. It is the premier market for stationery resources in the United States.

The annual trade show for the gift and stationery industry held in New York City every May is presenting approximately 1,400 exhibitors this year. The Show draws 14,000 domestic and international retailers representing department, chain and specialty stores, boutiques, stationery, card and gift shops, bookstores, bridal shops, party stores, hospital gift shops, museum stores, gallery/craft retailers, home furnishings stores, specialty office retailers, floral and garden centers, mass merchandisers.





Sex and the Single GrandMa