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May 1942. "Greenbelt, Maryland. Father and son shopping in the cooperative store." Next, kid, I'll teach ya to shop for tobacco products. Photo by Marjory Collins for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
Swan Soap was the sponsor for the "Burns and Allen" radio show, 1941-45.
wabash51, my grandfather, who was a farmer, always kept a bar of Lava on the stone utility tub on the back porch. He didn't just wash his hands with it, though. He swore that occasionally brushing his teeth with it was what kept them in good shape and got the cigarette stains off of them!
That child is a girl. She has a puffy sleeved dress on.
I'm getting plenty of satisfaction myself from YOUR Lucky Strikes!
In the 1960s, my family shopped at the Co-op in Berkeley, California. The house brand labels still looked exactly like that, except sometimes they included the "twin pines" logo as well.
I couldn't imagine smoking a cigarette a few inches from my toddler's face these days. But growing up in that era, dodging lit coals was part of the deal. Getting tagged once was enough for me to mind those things.
I remember Lava soap (is it still around?). Took the top layer of skin off when used!!
It's interesting to see the Ivory soap, but then to the left is the generic "White Floating Soap." Hopefully it was cheaper.
Funny that pretty much all the package designs really don't come off as retro-kitsch, but are truly appealing in their simplicity. A lesson for today's designers.
The Greenbelt Co-op is still operating. So is the swimming pool pictured yesterday.
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