Corporate Cooking

One item I commonly find at garage and estate sales are the old recipe booklets that various companies, food industries and occasionally the local utility company would publish.  They were either mailed or included with the product itself at the point of purchase.  I don't know why people hung onto these, but I'm glad they did because I love them.  I came across a cache of these at a sale this weekend.  I'll go into depth with some of these at a later date.

"Good Cooking made Easy", Spry Vegetable Shortening, 1942

In League with the Future

Back in August, I featured some 35mm slides I'd bought at the estate sale of a former Credit Union employee.  Those slides were about the year 2000 and what wonders it would hold for Credit Unions.  I was going through more of that lot of slides last week and found another set with a similar theme.  They're from a series called "In League with the Future".  Unfortunately, I don't have the record or script that goes with it, but it's pretty obvious it's about moving away from cash transactions to credit and how computers will enhance the way we pay our bills and buy goods and services.  If you didn't know that, you might think it was a science fiction story about a totalitarian world ruled by computers.  It's from about 1968 and has a definite 2001: Space Odyssey feel to it.  As a side note, unfortunately these slides have suffered the dreaded "red shift" that afflicts film of this era.  It's actually caused by the cyan dye in the film fading quicker than the yellow and magenta dyes.  If I had some better software (or knew how to use what I have), I think I could correct the color.

Shrimps and Weenies

The 1950's may be the best decade in history for home kitchens.  With new materials, new innovations and high demand, there seemed to be an appliance to fit every need.

Enter, the Shrimpmaster.

24 Tails of Brown

"Pin the Tail on the Donkey" is the quintessential children's party game that I'm not even sure anyone plays anymore. In fact, I don't recall ever playing it when I was a kid.  I knew it from TV shows.  I found this "Donkey Party Game" at a sale this morning.

 

The boy is either really into this, or completely horrified by it.

This donkey has an awfully smug look on his face for someone who's about to get a pin his butt.

  

There was a vintage box of straight pins included.

THE HORROR!!!!

Children's Birthday Party Games

This book of children's party games was published by the Leister Game Company who are still in business producing the same types of books.

Stamping Out High Prices

My knowledge of the various grocery store redemption stamp schemes of the 1960's and 70's is limited to memories of these stamps scattered and unpasted in our pencil drawer growing up and that episode of the Brady Bunch where the boys battled the girls to determine who would get to redeem the books in a card-pyramid building showdown that nearly tore the entire family apart, Tiger included.  (spoiler alert, the girls won.  Double-spoiler alert, they decided to get something everyone could enjoy -- a color TV).

I found these book, un-redeemed, at an estate sale recently.  They are for "Worth Dollars", issued by a local St. Louis redemption stamp company, "Top Value" stamps, issued by a Dayton, Ohio company, and the most popular and oldest remeption stamps, S&H Green Stamps.  The graphics inside these books encouraging you to save stamps are really neat, but the styles vary so greatly, I wonder if they aren't clip art.  The other downside is, once the stamps are pasted in the books, you can no longer see the art; definitive "ephemera".

Pulp Romance

These novels from the 1940's were surely aimed at stirring the libido of the reader with brazen titles and covers dripping with innuendo.  Scanning through the books, they seem pretty tame, at least compared to something like Cocoa Blades.  

"It was even rumored that she believed in free love."

Life March 15th, 1968

Given the subject, I considered saving this issue for an October post, but my standard is to print these in the month they came out.  So here's the March 15th, 1968 edition of Life magazine, at least the ads.

Sweaterin' to the Oldies

Columbia Minverva Corporation sold knitting pattern books from the 1960's to the 1980's.  They also just happened to sell the yarn needed to knit the patterns.

This Men's Book of sweaters probably dates from the early to mid-1960's.  

The Big Show

I've never been to a circus.  It wasn't that I hated clowns, I just severely disliked them.  I felt I had to be polite and smile and nod when approached, but inside I just thought they were stupid and wanted them to go away.  "The Big Show" from 1957 allows you to view clowns, from a distance, in their natural habitat, executing their natural instincts: abducting little girls.

Unidentified Frying Object

Looking more like the Jupiter 2 than an electric skillet, this frying saucer, also known as a "Party Chef" was made by Cory appliances of Chicago in the 1950's.

The Last Straw

Actually, there were about 25 left of the original 100 Super Long Donald Duck Sunshine Straws.

Amazingly, no kid cut these out.

It's hard to guess the age on these, but given the price of 15 cents, probably the 1950's to 1960's.

American Seal-Kap Corporation was a producer of milk bottle caps.

We've Been Adopted

I love these adoption announcements.  They probably date from the 1950's.  They're made by Norcross.

Fun to Cook Book

This book printed in 1970 by Carnation reminds me that the 70's didn't happen overnight.  The art in this book could easily be from the '50's or '60's.

Popular Science Coverage

I found these issues of "Popular Science" at a sale yesterday. There was a complete run from the late 40's to the mid 50's.  I thought about buying them all, but that way lay madness.  Instead, I picked up those that had interesting covers (yes, I am one to judge a book by it).  I'll eventually post each issue and provide some of the content and ads (always the best part) later, but for now, the covers deserve their own post.  I never read "Popular Science" because it intimidated me a little; I thought it was for "smart" people.

January 1956.  

I Got the Roaches

In honor of the first day of trout season here in Missouri (yes, some consider it a holiday), I thought I'd share this postcard, even if it's from Mississippi. Unfortunately, we received 6 inches of snow last night which resulted in a 35-car pileup on the main highway into Missouri's trout fishing parks, so I'm not sure how well opening day worked out.

I'm not crazy, right?  It says, "I got the roaches"?

609 (or 604) Spruce street appears to be a parking lot now.  Too bad, it's right by Busch Stadium.  Joe Weiss' Central Tavern would have done a booming business.  Come to think of it, it says "c/o Central Tavern".  I wonder if Joe owned the tavern or Harry just knew the postcard would find him there.