Book Board Chat

Greetings from Penn's Woods where fall is really in the air! Acorns crunching under foot.

Trading stamps were a very large part of our family, with 4 kids and my dad owning his own business money was tight, esp when farmers had bad years. He extended credit and got burnt when some farmers just couldn't pay him. You could tell what kind of year it had been at Christmas time. Not that my parents were ever the type to buy us tons of toys and putting toys on lay-away just wasn't done, but some years besides the PJs, underwear, and maybe a sweater, there would only be one or two things that I could consider "not a neccesity." One year it was a pair for ice skates - one for my oldest brother and one for me. That was it except for the clothes. Of course, by that time we were getting older too and toys were for the younger two but even then since they had an older brother who handed down toys, they didn't get a lot of new stuff either! Sorta like my poor younger son! LOL No wonder he is such a fashion plate now. He got tired of all those worn out T-shirts and jeans! Christmas here is pretty much in the tradition of our families. Maybe a few more toys and games then when we were growing up, but not a huge pile like I've seen at some homes.

As far as trading stamps, we had both the S&H green stamps and the plaid. The plaid were given out by A&P where my grandmother liked to shop. When my mother took her shopping then she would also buy stuff and come home with the plaid, but it was the S&H that filled the books quickly in our household. My mother and grandmother were so funny. My mother liked the one grocery store better than the one that her mother liked. My mother used Tide and my grandmother like Cheer. Mom bought Hellman's and grandmother bought Miracle Whip. LOL My grandmother had 10 kids with the oldest being my mom and the youngest an uncle who is only a year or two older than I am so money was always tight in their household. But that is the way it was for many people. I didn't even realize that we were not "middle class" until I was much older. We were not poor and not low-income enough to get any help or needs-based money for college but not the middle class that I saw when we went to Michagan to visit family friends and relatives. Swimming pools and more! LOL

I remember two items that my mother got with S&H green stamps. One was a set of luggage for going away to college. I think it was only 1 large green suitcase and a "train case" - remember train cases and hat boxes? Later I did have a medium size green suitcase but I don't think it was part of the set, just matched sort of. Anyway what was so funny about my going to college suitcase is that my best friend from HS who was going to the same college ended up with the same set! Her mother also had traded in the stamps for college luggage. I wonder how many kids went away to college in the late '60s and early '70s with luggage from the S&H green stamp store! LOL I had that luggage until fairly recently. We did buy new luggage in the mid-1990s when we went to Ireland but it took a long time even after that for me to let go of them. I'm going to have to ask my oldest brother what luggage he took to college! Wonder if his came from the green stamp store too.

The other item I remember my mother getting me for Christmas when I was in HS was a guitar. Never learned to play it very well beyond a few chords. I took it to college and a friend borrowed it. She left it against the radiator in her dorm room...well it warped of course. How dumb do you have to be to put something like that against heat?! I was very upset. Not so much because I didn't have a guitar to play anymore but the thought that this gift that my parents had been able to give me only because of those stamps was now ruined.

While my mother did paste in the green stamps, I mostly remember my father doing it for her in the evenings. Too many stamps and too little time with 4 kids to sit and paste in stamps! Later I took over doing it in the household but liked doing the Plaid the best. Also pasted in the stamps for my grandmother.

Until about the late 1970s or early 1980s, there was a green stamp store here (back home you had to drive an hour to one). DH and I went there right before it closed with the books that we had. Didn't have many since most stores no longer gave them. Can't even remember what we got, but I remember so well what was given to me by my parents due to those stamps.

Instead of stamps, I guess grocery stores now give the "bonus buys" where if you sign up with them you get the item for less. Between the bonus buys and coupons, you can reduce your bill by a nice amount but I doubt if anyone goes home and takes the money "saved" and "saves" it for buying Christmas or Birthday gifts.

David LOL about what happens with your Christmas club money! But OTOH, you have a nice chunk ready to pay that insurance and taxes.