The return of a 1970s Hallmark card store sign on a Yorkville street

The upside to a constantly changing city is the sudden resurfacing of a faded store sign. Case in point: the outline of the “Cards-U-Like” Hallmark store on First Avenue between 75th and 76th Streets. I’m placing it in the late 1970s because of the cute cursive letters, and the earliest newspaper ads I could find for the store date to 1980. The sign stirs up some nostalgia. I’d never visited this store when it was in business, but I suddenly miss the old Hallmark stationary stores that stocked everything a schoolkid needed—notebooks, pens, stuffed animals, and yep, last-minute cards for holidays and birthdays. The current store at this address is Rainbow, a hardware, drugstore, gift, and card store that spans most of the block. They don’t seem to be going out of business. I think the awning went down, and until they fix or replace it, Cards-U-Like will be visible—a Yorkville ghost sign.