How many of you can remember whenever you bought a box of laundry detergent, you would get a free bath towel or dish towel (although they were cheap made), or whenever you bought a tin of oatmeal, you would get a free dinner plate, cup or saucer, or when you bought a box of dry cereal, it would have some kind of cheap toy for children, the same with a box of cracker jacks, and when you bought a glass of jam/jelly, the glass was re-usable as a drinking glass? And some condiments, or other grocery items came in cute little accessory containers (example: in shape of a strawberry, etc)
Whenver I go into an antique shop these days, it's like a stroll down memory lane, as so many of those items that used to be freebies are now being sold as antiques, which makes me think that, now I am antique!
I have a set of China that my Grandmother got at a gas station in Iola. Everytime she filled up, she got a piece of it. Seems kinda odd to think of that now, in the day of everything being self-service... but it is beautiful china, and I'm glad that I have it.
I certainly remember the jelly glasses. Grandma would spread out the dough to make a bunch of sugar cookies and I would get to cut them out with a jelly glass. One of my favorite toys, (can't remember what it came in), was the little submarine that you put baking soda in and it would go up and down.
The one I remember best was the milkglass dishes that were so thin that they looked blue. You could almost read through them. I thought they were beautiful then and I still do. I have a plate and a saucer now. They weren't practical for use as they broke too easily. My sister was trying to collect an entire set for each of her daughters-in-law at one time. She has different daughters-in-law now. Don't know if they will get the sets or not.
We had a set of walkie talkies that were a send off premium with labels from cream of wheat. They were supposed to represent those used by Space Patrol. We were really into that; had an orange crate painted up with crayons and spool dials for the guidance panel on our space ship. It's hard to tell how much material my poor dad lost to the marauding of his kids with imaginations. His lumber pile became a wonderful pirate ship, and under it was a fantastic dungeon. Oh my, this does bring back the memories! LOL! ;D ;D
We had the first trampoline. Out behind a shed sat an old wire bed spring. We spent many hours jumping on the springs and trying not to get our feet caught in the springs. We felt very special having that extra old spring to jump on. Sometimes we even tried the jumping on our beds but that usually ended quickly before we were in trouble.
How many of you remember the glass objects that were in the shape of a car, a rabbit, boat, etc. and were filled with tiny little round colored candies? I have two or three of those that one of my aunts gave me when I was small. They are sometimes found in antique shops today. Do you remember the "perfume" in little bottles that looked like lamps? What about the bath powder in glass containers that sometimes looked like "Carnival Glass" and would have a deer, poodle or something like that on them?
Ooops! Looks like I'm telling my age!
MLW
We must enjoy remembering these things and telling our age, as we never know when our memory may go! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
How about the apple shaped jars painted red and yellow. I don't remember what they contained, but I have managed to collect one for each of my daughters. Maybe the jars will be worth something by the time the girls inherit.
I remember Silver Dust had towels, and we had some jelly glasses, but since Mom made most of our jellies and jams from our own fruit, not too many. We had sour cream jars and glasses and our milkman brought cottage cheese in handled soup bowls. I had a lot of box top premiums, still have a few of them. Ralston cereals had cowboy stuff including a checker board belt that glowed in the dark and had a tiny "secret drawer" behind the belt buckle. I had a secret decoder ring and a tiny TV set that had a wee film strip that went in it, so you could see the pictures. That was the TV for my big doll house. I still have my Hopalong Cassidy long horn neckerchief slide and some old Cracker jack toys. I still have a few of the older plastic "charms.'' I think there is a little beer mug, a hot dog, a hamburger, some teeth and a few others. I have an old glass pistol that still has some of the tiny "pill" candies inside, and I think there is a car and a boat around here somewhere. I had all the Space Patrol badges and rings was very serious about being a Space Cadet.....(Teresa and Janet, don't touch that line! ;D) I have a old nutmeg lamp that was my Great Grand Mother Clark's, and a candle mold that belonged to my Grandmother Alice Amberg. Ya remember Evening In Paris perfume? We had some of the milk glass dishes, but none lasted very long. I had the little submarine too. Great memories.
Does anyone remember the comic books that was given out when you bought a pair of shoes. I think the store was is Howard. The owners has them in a box on the floor.
I remember the shoe store in Chanute giving out a comic book at times. Maybe with our Buster Brown's. God I remember how we used to run in the store and stick our feet under the x-ray so we could see the bones in out feet.
Now the doctors would have a fit if those foot x-ray machines were still around. The x-rays were very powerful. I was only allowed to do it once a year. It's a wonder we didn't grow extra eyes or something on our toes. :o
The History Channel had a program within the last couple years about how those machines came to be in stores and why they were taken out.
One store on the square in Independence, MO, had a machine outside their door unattended for anyone to check and see if their shoes fit properly.
No one at the time knew there was a problem but it was not long before they did.
There are still patches of petunias that bloom in the pasture of some elderly friends of mine that were started from seeds packets that were a premium but I don't know what the product was. Another woman here had periwinkles that she had started from seed that came in Oatmeal and they were started in the early 40's.