Green Stamps

Back in the 50's and 60's, there were S & H Green Saving Stamps. When you shopped at

"participating stores" they would give you a certain number of green stamps. I'm don't

remember the exchange rate, but it was probably like one stamp for every dollar that you

spent. Also, at these stores, you could pick up booklets in which to paste your stamps.

So, you'd stash the stamps away and every-so-often you'd lick the stamps and glue them in

your saving's book.

You could redeem your stamp books for merchandise at designated stores. It may be difficult

now to envision a retail store existing for the sole purpose of redeeming little green stamps.

There was such a store on Watson, near Arsenal. Upon entering the store, you would see

rows of shelves, about eye level, where there was on display a variety of small appliances,

and home decor items. I remember helping my Mother lick and paste the stamps. Some

were in rows of ten or fifteen but there were also many individual stamps. This was a very

time consuming endeavor.

I wondered, even then, about the sense of printing pages of perforated green stamps that

had moisture-sensitive glue applied to them and little personal check-sized books in which to keep this endless supply of green stamps. Then you also have to question the fact that after

a person filled book after book of these stamps, the books would be collected at a store and

then forwarded to a central location. Then picture this same procedure happening across

the city, the state and the nation. Who counted these?

I remember we "purchased" several items from the green stamp store: a toaster, a percolator,

ash trays, photo frames, candy dishes, juice glasses, sauce pans, to name several. In the

beginning, all you had to do was turn in the required number of books, but later, a cash

accompaniment was necessary. A toaster may have gone for four books but as time went on,

it cost four books and three dollars.

It was a surprise when we found out the green stamp store was closing. We dug out all the

green stamps, which now came in a variety of shades of green, pasted them up and calculated

what we could get before the doors closed for good. Stores still carried the stamps, but now

you had to redeem them by mail using a catalog.