Old People Question

[barkley]

this thread is bringing back memories!!

encyclopedias were sold at the grocery stores but does anyone remember cookware and utensils as well? the first piece was some kind of bargain price and then each subsequent piece was a reduced price off retail w/a minimum purchase (so moms saved and shared receipts). i also remember the promotions gas stations did other than blue chip and green stamps-towel sets, glassware, arco's popular noah's ark animals (you had to convince your parents to pay for the arc so allot of kids had arc-less animals ).

the craziest promotion i ever recall was one with a laundry detergent where they somehow stuffed towels inside the box. my mom never bought these b/c she said the space the towel ate up meant less detergent-and detergent was more expensive than cheap towels.

 

[jo-jo]

this thread is bringing back memories!!

encyclopedias were sold at the grocery stores but does anyone remember cookware and utensils as well? the first piece was some kind of bargain price and then each subsequent piece was a reduced price off retail w/a Weminimum purchase (so moms saved and shared receipts). i also remember the promotions gas stations did other than blue chip and green stamps-towel sets, glassware, arco's popular noah's ark animals (you had to convince your parents to pay for the arc so allot of kids had arc-less animals ).

the craziest promotion i ever recall was one with a laundry detergent where they somehow stuffed towels inside the box. my mom never bought these b/c she said the space the towel ate up meant less detergent-and detergent was more expensive than cheap towels.

We used Marcal tissues. They had something you cut out of the box and send them to the company and we got sheets of Christmas wrapping paper. And of course, the paper was used about 6 times.....carefully open gift, save paper, iron, reuse.

 

[JLTraveling]

We used Marcal tissues. They had something you cut out of the box and send them to the company and we got sheets of Christmas wrapping paper. And of course, the paper was used about 6 times.....carefully open gift, save paper, iron, reuse.

This reminds me...did anybody else sell Christmas ornaments door to door in elementary school? I sold the most one year and won the grand prize, which was a new computer! Only my engineer father said the computer model (can't remember which one now) was pretty crappy, so we took the cash equivalent and used it toward a new Commodore 64. I used that computer all the way through high school, till we traded up to a Packard Bell.

I think the ornament company was Allegro. I still have a couple of them, surprisingly good quality.

 

[BrianL]

This reminds me...did anybody else sell Christmas ornaments door to door in elementary school? I sold the most one year and won the grand prize, which was a new computer! Only my engineer father said the computer model (can't remember which one now) was pretty crappy, so we took the cash equivalent and used it toward a new Commodore 64. I used that computer all the way through high school, till we traded up to a Packard Bell.

I think the ornament company was Allegro. I still have a couple of them, surprisingly good quality.

I do remember selling the chocolate bars and christmas wrapping paper for school fundraisers. I hated doing it and never won much of anything.

Funny story, during one of the chocolate sales, I had brought the case home and set it in the kitchen under the bar seating area. The next morning, the box was empty - all bars gone! Now, this was around the time my stepdad had jsut joined the household and he was a known chocolate-fiend. My mom suspected he had eaten them all! We had to pay for them, so at least I sold one full case. Years laer, when remodeling a bathroom, we found several of the wrappers behind a panel leading to the plumbing. Looks like a racoon had made a nest in there with a lot of socks and enjoyed a full case of chocolate bars too!

 

[mgarbowski]

It appears nobody has mentioned the Encyclopedia Americana, which we owned. We also purchased the annual yearbook updates for several years. Like others, I often would pick up a volume, open to random pages, and just read. Honestly, though, even then, from high school and up it was not very useful as a reference source.

 

[barkley]

I do remember selling the chocolate bars and christmas wrapping paper for school fundraisers. I hated doing it and never won much of anything.

back in the early 2000's one of the biggest suppliers for the school fundraisers had a MASSIVE warehouse nearish to our home. twice a year, by invitation only (not sure how you got on the invite list) they had a sale of all that overpriced stuff the school kids sold door to door. the $12 rolls of wrapping paper for 50 cents and $1, the $15 tubs of otis spunkmeyer cookie dough for $3, $45 cookie jars for $5...a co-worker was on the guest list and could get in a couple of plus ones so i went a few times. it was a crazy scene.

 

[lucas]

Well, geez. Dh and I must be reallllllllly old. We currently have a set on one of our bookcases. We don't have kids, and they were never really used, but I think they look quite nice on the bookcase.

 

[barkley]

Well, geez. Dh and I must be reallllllllly old. We currently have a set on one of our bookcases. We don't have kids, and they were never really used, but I think they look quite nice on the bookcase.

i've seen some quirky end tables made of old sets of hardback books with a hole drilled in the center and rebar used to keep them together. i love the look of books on a bookshelf but i will never get used to the decorating trend they are showing on hgtv these days where the books are put in backwards

 

[PrincessShmoo]

i will never get used to the decorating trend they are showing on hgtv these days where the books are put in backwards

I believe they do that so as not to appear to be advertising specific books.

 

[Giraffe_Zen]

We had these handed down from my older siblings:

 

[slo]

Jumping in this thread really late......

We did have a set of encyclopedias, and ours was to old and outdated for me for some topics - they were ANCIENT!!! They were one of the first things to go when my stepdad passed away.

It really is amazing to think that when I/we were in school we relied on encyclopedias for information. We'd have to go to the library with change so we could copy the pages. Some teachers required the copies and others just wanted you to reference them at the end of the report.

Ahhh.......that good ol days. Kids don't know how good they have it today

 

[bobbiwoz]

It appears nobody has mentioned the Encyclopedia Americana, which we owned. We also purchased the annual yearbook updates for several years. Like others, I often would pick up a volume, open to random pages, and just read. Honestly, though, even then, from high school and up it was not very useful as a reference source.

I am pretty sure that was our brand, and my parents bought it used, and we did have a few of the annual books that brought it up to date.

I had a set of Junior encyclopedia books for my sons. I know they loved to read through the books, but I don’t remember where they came from.

 

[pezgirlroy]

Yep and I always loved when we would get the year in review one.

 

[Dan Murphy]

We'd have to go to the library with change so we could copy the pages.

At least you're young enough, Sandy, to have had a copy machine. We had to transpose our information to paper, LOTS of writing. Lots of sore hands, sore wrists, sore arms.

 

[barkley]

At least you're young enough, Sandy, to have had a copy machine. We had to transpose our information to paper, LOTS of writing. Lots of sore hands, sore wrists, sore arms.

YES! i remember in high school there was one copy machine in the library but it was kept under lock and key and you had to get special permission to use it (almost exclusivly for staff use). the mimeograph machine was still #1 (i identify with the scene in 'fast times at ridgemont high' where the kids are sniffing the test papers being handed out ).

 

[slo]

At least you're young enough, Sandy, to have had a copy machine. We had to transpose our information to paper, LOTS of writing. Lots of sore hands, sore wrists, sore arms.

That would not be fun
I was pretty lucky to have a xerox machine even though I didn’t realize it back then. Makes me wonder what my kids will consider lucky to have had when they have grandkids. How much more advancement will there be? The biggest question is will that advancement be good? You writing a lot really helped you retain what you’re studying. I’m not sure if today’s way can say the same. That would actually be a good debate project for a kid in a debate class

 

[PollyannaMom]

At least you're young enough, Sandy, to have had a copy machine. We had to transpose our information to paper, LOTS of writing. Lots of sore hands, sore wrists, sore arms.

I remember putting things on index cards (coded in the corner by source) and then rearranging them aaaaalllllllll over my living room floor into the order I wanted to use them in a paper.

 

[Tiggerish]

When I was growing up my Father worked for a paper mill first in quality control and then in sales. One of their best clients was Encyclopedia Britanica. They gave his a full set for us and sent the yearly update. This was in the mid 1960's and they continued to send him the yearly update even after he retired right up to 2010 when they ended the print editions. Another big client was Tyndale House Publisher a Christian books and Bibles company. When we were cleaning out the home after my parents died, he had from than 50 Bibles and another hundred or so religious books they had given him.

 

[Deb]

We had a set of World Book growing up. And at some point I acquired my grandmothers set of 1929 Encyclopedia Britannica. I still have the atlas from that set.

 

[Praying Colonel]

We had a set of 1954 Encyclopedia Britannica Junior that my mother got when she was a little girl. I wore those things out. The section on WWII was my favorite. Close 2nd was a chart of history in different parts of the world at certain dates.