Thanksgiving Feed - Aftermath: Pepto-Bismol (1955)

Thanksgiving Feed - Arrow Creme de Menthe (1950)

Desert time and what's better than a desert with a little kick? One that has a little kick and ice cream!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Feed - Kre-Mel Pie Filling (1940)

Kre-Mel Pie Filling, apparently glorified pudding used to fill pies back in the 40's. I am interested in knowing how to make a sultan. I'm guessing it's nothing more than what we'd call French Silk.

Thanksgiving Feed - A&P Coffee (1940)

I never connected A&P with Eight O'Clock Coffee for some reason. I mean, now that I think about it, the only place I ever saw the brand was in A&P, but for some reason I never figured it as a store brand. I guess that's a mark of good marketing.

Thanksgiving Feed - Brown Derby Pie (1953)

This is one I've got to try. I have to note that it's the generic "movie stars", no specifics...so I'm guessing these are theoretical movie stars.

Thanksgiving Feed - Bosco (1940)

When I was growing up the only thing that'd be added to milk would have been Nestles Quick. Bosco was a thing of the past and, judging by the look of it, I'm grateful for that fact! Nothing like adding motor oil to the kiddo's morning cow juice. And "Milk Amplifier", what the heck is that all about? I've seen all kinds of off-beat buzz-wordery, but I'm thinking "Milk Amplifier" ranks up there with the wackiest.

At first I was also surprised at the angle the ad takes in general. I mean this is 1940, just one year before the US would enter World War II and in the midst of the macho, he-man era and it looked like there were two young boys playing dress-up. That was until I caught the middle panel at the bottom shows it's a boy and a girl playing dress-up. Still feels odd, though. Kind of like these two kids are the last children on Earth and they really don't know how to be kids or something. It's got that Victorian sense of kids are nothing more than little adults.

Thanksgiving Feed - Campbell's Mushroom Soup (1953)

A staple of the Thanksgiving casserole, that salty soup of mashed mushrooms, Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup. Seems like I can remember when the green bean casserole came into my life. It was sometime during the seventies, back when my grandparents were living and hosted every family gathering in their tiny 30's era bungalow with the six and a half-foot high ceilings. Back then practically everyone smoked and there'd be a Camel-Winston cloud bank from about Adams apple to ceiling. Eventually, with lungs ragged from second-hand smoke, I'd retreat to the tiny backyard to get a breath of icy fresh air and listen to the breeze moving through the nearly-bare limbs of the gigantic apple tree that dominated their tiny lot. Who would have guessed I'd be sentimental for second-hand smoke?

Thanksgiving Feed - Popcorn

I'm not sure where I came across this ad. Somehow it wound up in my chaff pile, waiting to be sorted, and I stumbled across it this morning while searching for food-related materials for the season of feasting that is Thanksgiving. I'd love to have one of these machines. Not sure where I'd put it, but the look of it is just amazing. It speaks of a time when popcorn was enough of a treat to be vended from a bubblegum-style machine at fairs and on boardwalks across the country. Simpler times, I guess. Then again I've come to realize that times never were as simple as we'd like to think. Especially when I'm guessing this ad comes from the era of the Great Depression and World War II.

Think you're at a railroad depot, waiting for the train to the coast and basic training before heading overseas to who-knows-where to face people who mean to murder you and everyone you love. You're surrounded by a thousand strangers, it's your first time away from home and may wind up being your last. A cold air blows through the station carrying with it the smell of popcorn and your mind goes back to the Grand Theater on Main Street, your best gal, and sneaking a cuddle while the Wolfman chewed the scenery and for a moment you're home and safe and there is no war, no hatred, and no looming shadow of death sitting on the bench beside you. Maybe that's a big part of what Thanksgiving's all about.

Thanksgiving Feed - Sealtest Ice Cream

Here's another look from Sealtest. We've seen 'rip-roarin' cowboy Western Almond and now we're going for New York and Tiffany's. Today we would call this a "super premium" ice cream, but back in the 50's it was "Prestige". For me, Sealtest was a dinner table regular, it was a discount brand and showed up year-round, usually in Neapolitan. But, after Thanksgiving dinner, it wasn't unusual to have a scoop of it on top of a warm slice of pumpkin pie.

Thanksgiving Feed - Booth Sardines (1922)

Now we're on the opposite side of 20's advertising. A few days ago I ran an ad for Wesson Oil that was simply beautiful, today I'm running an ad for Booth's Sardines that makes me shudder. It's not that I dislike sardines, I actually like them (though I prefer anchovies). No, the problem is in the images of "Booth's Sardine Loaf" and "One Minute Salad"

Sardine loaf is the least offensive. In essence it looks no worse than a loaf of Spam or Treet - not that I'd call that a ringing endorsement - and when I read the instructions that's about what it amounts to. Take some de-boned sardines and mash them up with eggs and breadcrumbs, then pack it in a mold and cook the life out of it. You'll come up with a block of sardines that will clear a break room in under ten seconds.

One Minute Salad is the worst. In the illustration it looks like someone's taken a steaming dump on a lettuce leaf. Reading the recipe, though, it sounds like the less offensive of the two fishy treats. It's really nothing but tuna salad made with sardines.

I'm struck by the fact they needed to specify these are "food sardines". Were there industrial sardines? Maybe weaponized sardines? The mind boggles.

Thanksgiving Feed - Minute Tapioca (1922)

There's something about a food that has to lurk in the shadows. I mean look at that table. It looks like a co-star in Double Indemnity. Somebody died for that tapioca.

Outside of the insanity that's bubble tea, I've never met a person who really likes tapioca. I mean somebody eats it. That or it's another case like the fruitcake where we're all just passing around the same tapioca in an eternal loop of passive aggressiveness. There's just something about foods that come in bead form. I never trusted those beads that used to be in Contact cold capsules either. They just didn't look...well...honest.

Watch the smiles it says, more like watch the grimaces. "Oh lord, Gladys is serving tapioca again...how the hell do I get out of here without making a scene?"

Thanksgiving Feed - Wesson Oil (1922)

I love this ad. Not because of what's being sold or cleverness or humor, but because it's just beautiful to look at. It makes me think of a time when: a) Mayonnaise was new enough to be worthy of mentioning and b) people didn't think of mayo as something that came in a jar from Hellman's or Kraft. Speaks to a time when life was slower and simpler. At least I like to think it does. Now no magazine would think of simply calling it mayonnaise, they'd opt for aioli and add capers or something like that. So much of our identity is drown in the words we use and the way they make us feel about ourselves. Better to go back to the days when mayo was mayo.

Thanksgiving Feed - Blue Bonnet Margarine (1955)

My grandmother used to have Blue Bonnet, in fact she never asked for butter - she asked for margarine. I have to wonder how much its "healthy" trans-fats shortened her life...probably not much more than the two pack a day habit she had until the day she went into the hospital.

Thanksgiving Feed - Sealtest Ice Cream (1955)

Love the 50's imagery in this Sealtest two-page ad - cowboys, brands, and lassos make me long for family dinners at Bonanza or Ponderosa, I just need Dennis the Menace and the look's complete. Western Almond is a new flavor for me, though and apparently it was to everyone in '55. A close inspection of the carton gives no evidence of what the flavor is - aside from it's almond and, apparently, western.

Thanksgiving Feed - Pream (1955)

Can't have coffee without cream...or maybe creamer. I couldn't find any information about Pream. Nothing more than a few old ads, that is. I liked the old coffee carafe in this one, though I can't imagine using non-dairy creamer in cake or tomato soup.

Thanksgiving Feed - Fleischmann's Yeast

I can't help but think if World War II happened today, Fleischmann's would have changed its name to shed its German roots. It would have become "Freedom Yeast" or "Victory Fungus" or something. Instead they opted for one of the most dystopian, steampunk soldiers depicted during the war years.

I had to look up the reference to Nazi use of a drug called Previtin as an alertness aid by Nazi soldiers. The drug usage was revealed in a book written by former Nazi soldier Heinrich Boll. Apparently bread is better than meth, though, which is why we now have such a rye problem in America.

Thanksgiving Feed - Spur Cola (1944)

I'm not sure if Spur Cola is still in production or not, the best I can say is that it's not available here in Indiana. I found ads from the 80's, so there's a chance that somewhere out there someone is chugging a cold Spur right now. Really can't be sure!

There were a lot of different versions of this ad, all with different models proclaiming they'd never tasted a cola so fine as Spur. Nothing too exciting, though. I guess you have to leave it to Coca-Cola if you want big, flashy soda ads.

Thanksgiving Feed - Meat and Plasma (1944)

Here they are again, those proud purveyors of all things meaty, the American Meat Institute and their wartime push for blood and meat. I guess it's meant to encourage those on the home front to give plasma for the troops, but there's something a little chilling when the guys who run slaughterhouses start calling for human blood. It just doesn't sit right, you know?

Of course we get the Norman Rockwell style illustration of all the good Americans waiting on line to give blood, but a couple of other things struck me as well. Firstly, who would have enough ration coupons to get all the meat shown in the illustration of "a war meat-meal"? My understanding was meat was among the most restricted foods. Second, I have to wonder how many of those cold cuts shown in that same illustration had traded in their ethnically German names for American patriot-ized names? We went through the whole "freedom fries" debacle, I wonder if they had "war weenies" or "victory-wurst"?

Thanksgiving Feed - Nesbitt's (1944)

Ready for a fizzy drink? How about a Nesbitt's Orange Soda...well, okay you'll have to work to get one because they're rare and distributed only in certain states. They did use Marilyn Monroe in their print ads long before she became the Marilyn Monroe and they once held the title of the most popular orange soda in the United States. I guess that's saying something.

This ad, on the other hand, doesn't say much. 1944 would have been the cusp of the Nesbitt heyday. The company had started bottling its sodas just five years earlier and they were heading toward being soda kings. Seems a little less than ambitious for the kings...but then again somewhere they were running their Marilyn ad at this time so that kind of balances things out.