Comments on: Sugar brings you all kinds of neat stuff

By: lindberg

lindberg — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:37:40 +0000

Wow, great flashbacks inspired by the comments! I haven’t thought about trading stamps in decades.

I remember my mom collecting them and then having us kids lick them and paste them in the books. I think we got both S&H green stamps and some type of gold stamps, depending on the store we went to. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s still got a half-filled book tucked away somewhere in a forgotten drawer.

By: reed russell

reed russell — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 06:20:18 +0000

I really don’t remember Gold Strike, but in California at least, the main player seemed to be Blue Chip stamps. And I would have never remembered the two sizes with 5 in a column instead of 50 on a page unless you had mentioned it, Ardis. Funny how the mind works – or doesn’t.

By: Maurine Ward

Maurine Ward — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:23:32 +0000

I remember my mother saving both Gold Strike stamps and S&H Green stamps. In fact I saved the green stamps after I married in 1960 and there was a redemption center in Logan that I went to.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:46:06 +0000

The great god Wikipedia’s article on trading stamps does list “Gold Strike” among them, so I’m pretty sure this time I remember correctly despite the haze of cigarette advertising I grew up with …

Yes! I remember the redemption centers, too, reed.

Remember how the stamps (at least the gold ones) came in two sizes? (bonuses for dollars and cents spent, I suppose). You could either fill up a whole page in the booklet with 50 (or however many it took) of the small stamps, or paste something like 5 of the larger stamps in a column down the outside of the page. And before you put away the paper bags, you always had to check to see whether there were any stamps hiding at the bottom.

By: reed russell

reed russell — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:27:34 +0000

I have a vague memory of driving with my mom to an actual redemption center to turn in the booklets for “prizes.” Kind of like turning in your tickets at Dave and Busters.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/styleliner51/4027882092/

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:23:55 +0000

Gold Strike? I remember they were gold, and my mom collected them–pasted them all into a booklet, and then sent them off for redemption. Gold Bond stamps is what Google leads to.

Maybe you got Gold Strike stamps in your cartons of Lucky Strike cigarettes. : )

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:59:38 +0000

In Salt Lake the stamps that were far more common than S&H were Gold Strike stamps — I remember a lot of things my mother bought with those (a hair dryer, some TV trays, a magazine rack, and after saving a massive number of books of stamps, an electric floor scrubber/washer/polisher).

By: Researcher

Researcher — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:41:40 +0000

Oh my. Saving labels. It seems like I have a memory of my mother doing that. Nowadays all I save are the Boxtops for the elementary school. And wasn't there also something called Green Stamps? Yep: S&H Green Stamps

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:13:48 +0000

Yes — that’s a large part of the reason for the running gag of posting these old sugar ads showing all the ways they found over the years it peddle the product!

By: reed russell

reed russell — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:00:05 +0000

Wasn’t U&I owned by the church?