You can wear whatever you like, ok?
Just not with a Pepsi, ok?
Fun facts:
Before 1955, Coca-Cola was only sold at soda fountains or in 6.5 ounce bottles. Tres dainty.
The oldest known masks are around 9,000 years old.
Have you ever seen a kola nut?
“It is better to look good than to feel good.” – Fernando Lamas (the real one and the one played by Billy Crystal on SNL)
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RRRR-R — Notice that they don’t show dad “sharpening his pencil”?
Fun facts:
Charles Shulz created 17,897 different daily Peanuts comic strips.
Snoopy was almost Sniffy.
A girl named Lila was Snoopy’s first owner.
The inside of Snoopy’s doghouse was large enough to hold four children.
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This ad must’ve taken place before they invented personal zones.
A bit about the artist Jay Hyde Barnum.
Hey! The company is still around!
A guide to wearing wool in the summer.
And speaking of wool, meet Shrek, the sheep who escaped shearing for six years by hiding in New Zealand caves.
Or perhaps you would prefer a wood suit?
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I have questions.
What is that tool/toy at the bottom of the ad?
The husband is totally cheating on her, right?
Is wearing white really the wisest choice here?
Fun facts:
Classic Trains has a nice assortment of Golden State Limited marketing materials.
Golden State’s later years were not quite so posh and luxurious.
And what good is Golden State Limited history if it doesn’t include tales of train robberies gone wrong and bodies found in drippy trunks?
Oh, now you want to learn more about Winnie Ruth Judd, AKA the Trunk Murderess, AKA the Tiger Woman, AKA the Blonde Butcher? I gotcha covered. Also, there’s a website named Murderpedia.
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Fun facts:
Union-Alls appear to be another word for coveralls, or ever better, speed suits.
Scout preferred overalls in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Lee and Wrangler are now owned by Kontoor Brands. Would you wear Kontoor jeans?
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This is truly one of the best headlines ever written. Perhaps not back when it was originally written and meanings were slightly different, but a masterpiece today.
I wonder how much of that Vitamin D came from the milk (or cream – yes, that was a thing back then) they poured on the Pep?
Fun facts: Kellogg’s Pep was the first breakfast cereal fortified with spray-on vitamins.
Kellogg’s Pep cereal was also a mild laxative.
Pep was once known as “the sunshine cereal”.
Ergo, Pep let you fart sunshine.
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Wanna lose weight and get in great shape! Eat a shitload of sugar!
On second thought, don’t do dat.
Fun facts:
In the Middle Ages, rich and royal people would commission giant sugar sculptures called subtleties.
Artist Kara Walker confected us a modern one and called it “A Subtlety“.
Want more sugar trivia? Here ya go. Want ever more. Ok, but pace yourself.
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“Here’s to women who play with fire and the perfume that they can smolder in.” — from a review of this scent by Barbara Herman at Yesterday’s Perfume.
Fun facts:
“Poivre” is French for “pepper”, named after the fragrance’s hot spicy pepper top note and now I really want to smell it.
Caron’s Poivre squeaked in at #10 in this list of The World’s 10 Most Expensive Perfumes Ever Created.
You can pick up 90 ml. of this perfume on Etsy for the low, low price of $2,130! (used)
Parfums Caron is still going strong.
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During my back half of high school and first year of college in the late-80s, I worked at a strip-mall store called Budget Tapes and Records in Bismarck and Fargo, North Dakota. It didn’t pay much, but was definitely one of the coolest jobs around. When I started, CDs were still sold in “long boxes” and beta videos and vinyl were on the way out. And yes, we also sold tobacco accessories for use with tobacco and only tobacco. Tobacco.
So imagine my surprise when I was flipping through an old Rolling Stone magazine and found a full page ad for an earlier version of Budget Tapes and Records. Full page. Rolling Stone magazine. Daaaaaaamn. Also, it appears they were way cooler back then.
Note: Even though the Eighties-era Bismarck and Fargo stores weren’t as cool as the 1971 stores, they were still much cooler than the Williston, North Dakota store. Yeesh.
Another note: Hey! My old boss (and his brother) made it into Billboard magazine back in the day!
Whew. Lots of memories coming back from this gig, few of which I’d share here. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
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Just an awesome photo take long before Photoshop was a thing.
I dug a bit looking for a Google image search match to see if I could find the photographer’s name, but alas. If I ever find that out, I’ll let you know.