Trading Stamps

There was a "Green Stamp" redemption center next to Westlake Mall in Bessemer and I remember going there with my mother and grandmother. I don't remember what they got, but I remember everybody being pretty excited about it.

Not long ago, my daughter and I were in the truck and George Jones and Tammy Wynette's song, "Something to Brag About" came on.

Tammy sang, "I've got 17 pages of Top Value stamps and one old pair of shoes" and it occurred to me that my daughter (or any of my kids, for that matter) would have no idea what trading stamps are, apart from an old Brady Bunch episode where the children manage to trade in their family's stamps for an eight foot row boat that was somehow supposed to hold nine people. But I digress...

I also remember that the S&H Green Stamp logo was EVERYWHERE. I can still see it in my head.

 

There is a grocery store in Harrisonburg, Virginia that was still issuing them just a few years ago. I do not know if they still are as I have not visited that store for some time.

I did find the following link:

http://www.greenpoints.com/account/act_default.asp

The You can redeem old S&H stamps and apparently earn points online yet. I did not explore the sight in depth.

 

Thanks for the memories, Salty. Grandma on my father's side was an S&H Green Stamp junkie. She'd have grocery sacks full of stamps. I think she was hustling her neighbors and friends for their stamps because I don't think Grandma ever had the kind of cash flow to support the volume of Green Stamps she was collecting. I could be wrong

Every few months, Pa would drag us down to grandma's so we could help her paste the stamps in the little books. She had these little bottles with a sponge in the stopper so you could wet up whole sheets of stamps all to once.

I have this gaudy ceramic table piece - all bright yellows and orange - with a little tray to hold the salt and pepper shakers on the ends and a covered bowl in the center for saccharine tablets. I was with her when she redeemed a sack full of Green Stamps for this. I remember being fascinated with the little tiny spoon in the bowl.