Comments on: The Answer to All Our Economic Woes? Sugar!!

By: Sam Brunson

Sam Brunson — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 03:57:19 +0000

I love that the ad appeals to communitarian impulses—buy it because it’s the best, of course, but also because it supports your neighbor. It predates the locavore movement (which, frankly, I subscribe to to the extent I can) by almost 70 years, but Home Production kind of hits the same notes.

Plus, any appeal to somebody’s taxpaying ability warms my heart.

By: andrew h

andrew h — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:52:20 +0000

Grant – I must agree. We recently moved to the Rupert/Burley Id. area. You can smell the sugar factory 10 plus miles away. It is very bad. If your from the SLC area think “Lake Stink”, only worse.

By: Grant

Grant — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 01:52:32 +0000

Have any of you ever smelled a sugar beet factory? P.U! I’m sure Ardis will know when the last one closed down in the Salt Lake Valley. There is still one operational in Nampa, Idaho where my parents live. Not a nice place to visit in the fall when they process the beets.

By: Frank Pellett

Frank Pellett — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:22:03 +0000

On a side note, would it even be worth it to plant sugar beets in the home garden nowadays? I cant even imagine how much work it would take to get sugar out of them.

By: Frank Pellett

Frank Pellett — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:20:28 +0000

These sugar threads keep getting the Sugar Beet song from Sesame Street stuck in my head

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 21:59:30 +0000

Duh, you’re right Clark. It would soon be rationed, but wasn’t at the time of this ad.

“Home produced” in this case does mean U&I but excludes the cane sugar of C&H. I’ve just prepared a few other early ’40s sugar ads for posting (you know I’ll stretch out this gag as long as I can), and one of them lists about five brands that were being pitched as home produced. They were all beet sugar brands manufactured in Utah and Idaho.

By: The Other Clark

The Other Clark — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 21:48:48 +0000

My personal family history indicates that sugar did, indeed, solve the economic woes of at least two branches of the family: One farmed it near Sugar City, Ida., the other branch survived the Depression primarily because of wages provided by the factory.

#5– Sugar wasn’t rationed until May 1942. (Pearl Harbor wasn’t yet bombed when this ad ran.)

Is Home-Produced a brand, or a generic term that covers both U&I and C&H?

By: Mina

Mina — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:02:03 +0000

In that last drawing, I thought Mom was offering Dad a frothy-headed glass of dark beer.

I guess people really do see what they want.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:42:53 +0000

Frank, Utah and Idaho had been engaged in sugar beet production for decades at this point. I think most of the country’s sugar probably did come from Hawaii, and perhaps Cuba, and I don’t know whether shipping difficulties, or men being engaged in military labors instead of sugar production, or other problems resulted in a shortage. Sugar was rationed, though, so these ads that have become kind of a running gag on Keepa are not merely ploys by a local industry to sell more product.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:52:09 +0000

I’m just wondering when our Mormon grandparents are going to run out of ways to attribute every virtue known to men or gods to SUGAR!! No sign of running out yet.