Vintage Halloween Greeting Card, Jolly Child with Jack-O'-Lantern

What strikes you first is that red-lipped smile—fixed, luminous, and possessed of the quality of someone who has been told to look delighted for so long that the expression has fused permanently to his skull. This rosy-cheeked boy in a bat-printed gold party hat, clutching a jack-o-lantern in one hand and what appears to be a broom handle in the other, accessorizes with a jaunty red bow tie that says 'I take my Halloween seriously and also I am running for class president.' The jack-o-lantern's crooked, gap-toothed grin is frankly the more relaxed face in this image, because the boy beams with the energy of a child who absolutely will not be told 'no.' The card cheerfully declares 'Wishing You a Jolly Hallowe'en'—that apostrophe in Hallowe'en doing the heavy lifting of reminding you that this child has been grinning like this since before your grandparents were born and will continue long after you are gone.