Humble Station Open House – Sept. 16, 1964

I've probably asked this question before on this blog: are you picky about where you buy your gas? How about when you were younger?

Many of us remember when all the major brands of gasoline were represented in our area: Sohio, Sunoco, Gulf, Shell, Texaco, Sinclair, Pure, Cities Service, Clark, etc. We all had our favorites for various reasons.

Some of these brands, such as Sunoco and Shell, are still around. There are even some ersatz Pure stations that don't seem to have any connection to the classic brand. And there are a lot of weird ones too, such as RaceWay.

Anyway, I was surprised to see in the ad below that Lorain had two Humble stations: one at 2221 E. 42nd Street and one at 1313 Broadway. The ad ran in the Journal on September 16, 1964.

The ad is great in that it presents the idealized gas station in all its retro glory. There are helpful, uniformed attendants, an attractive station exterior, a couple looking at what is probably a free map, and happy moppets running about. And of course, best of all, is the inclusion in the ad of the great Humble tiger, one of the most appealing advertising mascots of all time.

The striped jungle cat appeared on this blog before, on this post when Humble changed its name to Exxon, and on this post where he was a popular Halloween costume.

The Humble Tiger was featured on many promotional items

Citizens Home & Savings Assn Ad – Sept. 7, 1974

It's fall, and the squirrels are busy burying nuts at the condo where I live. (I know, because I've been watering some new shrubs and I see the tell-tale evidence in the mulch.) So this ad for Citizens Home and Savings Association featuring one of the bushy-tailed nut gatherers is pretty timely. It ran in the Journal on September 7, 1974.

It's kind of quaint with its stylized squirrel illustration. The little guy reminds me somewhat of Pearl the Squirrel (at right), although he's not quite so anthropomorphic. But the ad's theme – of putting money in a certificate savings account (or CD) – would probably be received with little enthusiasm today (although CDs are earning more than they did a few years ago). Various polls put the percentage of Americans living paycheck to paycheck from anywhere from two-thirds to three quarters. So there's not a lot of saving going on.

Citizens Home and Savings Association hasn't come up on this blog too often. This post featured a few of the organization's Christmas Club ads, as well as a 2012 photo of its building at 559 Broadway in Lorain, today the home of Fifth Third Bank.

The Return of Gene Patrick and "The Passing Scene" – 1974

Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of Gene Patrick and his "Passing Scene" cartoons that appeared in the Lorain Journal in the 1960s and 70s.

The talented cartoonist and his creations have been the subject of more than 45 blog posts.

Gene started his tenure at the Journal around the spring of 1965, with some of his earliest "Passing Scene" strips showing up in the paper at that time. He also was a staff photographer at the paper and his photos continued to appear even when "The Passing Scene" stopped in July of 1969. He did contribute the occasional comic illustration to accompany a story right into the 1970s.

Gene left the Journal eventually and opened his Hobby Hub business next to Yala's Pizza in April of 1972. 

Unfortunately, the business endeavor didn't last. But Gene didn't immediately go back to his old job at the paper.

So when did he return to the Journal and  revive "The Passing Scene" comic strip?

Apparently the young man went West. This small item in Jim Mahoney's "Mahoney's Memos" column of Feb. 26, 1973 revealed he was out in California.

Then, a little more than a year later, "The Passing Scene" was back in the Journal on March 16, 1974. It would continue to appear about twice a month on Saturday, from that point on.

March 16, 1974

March 23, 1974

March 30, 1974

Readers of the Journal were understandably pleased with the strip's comeback, judging by these two letters to the Editor.

March 20, 1974

May 30, 1974

Gene even enjoyed some international success with his cartooning. This item from the "Mahoney's Memos" of July 31, 1974 explains.

So here are the "Passing Scenes" that appeared from late August through September.

August 24, 1974

Sept. 7, 1974

Sept. 28, 1974

Gene apparently ruffled some feathers with the last panel of the September 7th strip. Check out this Letter to the Editor from Sept. 25, 1974!

Vanilla Koogle Peanut Spread Ad – Sept. 11, 1974

Do you remember Koogle Peanut Butter?

Well, it wasn't technically peanut butter. Its official description was 'peanut spread.' Nevertheless, it was one of the products that came out when I was a kid that we enjoyed – only to see it disappear.

Above is the ad for the vanilla flavor version of the product. The ad ran in the Journal on Sept. 11, 1974.

Vanilla Koogle was really sweet, if I recall – which is why I liked it so much. Plus, vanilla is one of my favorite flavors. There was a chocolate version too that we liked, as well as banana, and cinnamon.

I'm sure you have memories of a product that you liked, only to see it taken off the market due to lack of sales or some other reason.

Another product I loved was Vanilly Crunch, part of Quaker Oats' flanker strategy for the Cap'n Crunch brand. Unlike regular Cap'n Crunch, which is butterscotch flavor and small, square shaped pillows (that are rough on the roof of your mouth), Vanilly Crunch was round, vanilla-flavored puffs. I loved it. And I'm not the only one, because many people besides me have left comments on the Cap'n Crunch Facebook page asking them to bring it back.

In our house, we loved just about anything that the good Cap'n introduced, including Cap'n Crunch's Ship Shake. It was more or less a knock-off of Carnation Instant Breakfast (which I also liked). The initial rollout of Ship Shake included a free shaker mug to mix it up in. I have a few of these mugs today, although the product was scuttled long ago.

I've blogged about other products that people fondly remember, including Kellogg's Danish Go-Rounds and Yes-Yes Cookies.

Be sure to leave a comment about a product that you liked that unfortunately came and went without a trace.

Most Outstanding House in Lorain – Aug. 29, 1964

What's your favorite style of house?

Hopefully it's the kind that you're living in right now. Or maybe you have pleasant thoughts about the style of the house you grew up in.

My parents built two new homes – both ranches – on the west side of Lorain, one in the late 1950s, one in the mid-1960s. Consequently, that was the style I was used to. Our last ranch with three bedrooms on E. Skyline Drive was a little cramped, but it was perfect for my parents when they eventually became empty nesters.

Most of my friends in the 1960s and 70s lived in ranches as well. A couple of them lived in colonials, and I remember thinking that they must be sort of rich. They even had their own bedrooms – a foreign concept to someone like me who shared his bedroom with two brothers. (Ironically, I now look back and get sentimental about those days.) 

During my adulthood, I've lived in two colonials – one on the east side of Lorain and one in Sheffield Lake. During those years, I was no longer awestruck about colonials. And I certainly knew I wasn't rich.

Anyway, what I'm taking my time getting around to is the observation that everyone has their own concept of what is the perfect house. 

Sixty years ago, the ad for Robert Masley, Builder above from the August 29, 1964 Journal made the case that the home mentioned in the ad was 'the most outstanding and most accepted home in Lorain.'

It's hyperbole to be sure, but it was a different time. Constructing a house in Lorain meant either building in a new subdivision, or buying a vacant lot in an established neighborhood and working with a builder on your own. The concept of gated communities was still years off. Rock Creek Run was probably the closest thing.) 

And what did the house profiled in the ad look like? Here it is, sixty years later, still looking great.

AAUW Tour of Homes Featuring the Burrell Homestead – Sept. 1964

Burrell Homestead on E. River Road, Sheffield Village
(Photo courtesy of Dr. Charles E. Herdendorf)

Back in the 1950s, 1960s and 70s (and possibly longer), the American Association of University Women (AAUW) sponsored a series of fall home tours in Lorain County that usually featured a unique home of historic interest. 

I've written about a few of these tours. The highlight of the 1968 edition (which was also the 10th anniversary) was the Watts Granary on State Route 113. The 1971 tour featured Budmar Farm on North Ridge Road.

And here's a full page article about the AAUW Seventh Annual Tour of Homes, scheduled for October 2, 1965. The article appeared in the Journal on Sept. 25, 1965.

As the article notes, the featured house that year was the Burrell Homestead on E. River Road in Sheffield Village. The report by well-known Journal Staff Writer Lou Kepler provides a nice history of the house, as well as the lineage of the members of the Burrell family who lived there over the years.

The article mentions how the Burrell home was the center of the Sheffield community in the early pioneer days, and that "the first school house also stood nearby and the brick building which replaced the original structure burned in 1940." I wrote about that school house here and here. The second post includes an aerial view of the Burrell homestead and the school, located across from the house on E. River Road, circa late 1920s.

I photographed the Burrell Homestead in winter back here in 2014.

Grand Opening of Sugar 'N Spice – Sept. 3, 1964

It wasn't all that long ago when if you wanted to buy a card and perhaps a small present to go with it, you would visit one of the many local Mom and Pop gift shops. Lorain had a lot of these small stores over the years. They were usually affiliated with a major brand of greeting cards such as Hallmark, and carried a wide variety of unique merchandise. I'm sure you had your favorite (such as Margie's Hallmark at the Lorain Plaza).

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be many of these stores anymore. People just don't send as many cards as they used to, preferring instead to offer greetings online.

But sixty years ago, these small gift shops were very popular and a new one opening in Downtown Lorain was big news. Above you see the Grand Opening full-page ad for one of them: Sugar 'N Spice, at 524 Broadway. It ran in the Lorain Journal back on September 2, 1964.

It's a nice-looking ad (although the stencil typeface for the store name gives it a cargo crate feeling). According to the ad, the store carried Barton Candies – something different from the usual Whitman's, etc. Many of the Barton selections came in uniquely designed tins.

Sugar 'N Spice was successful enough to stay open right into the 1970s. Here's one of those business page articles from the October 26, 1970 Journal. It includes a photo of Marjorie Shame, a clerk at the store.

And here's another article, from the December 21, 1970 edition.

On July 10, 1976 a tornado struck Lorain and parts of Lorain as far south as Oberlin. Sugar 'N Spice is one of the stores that was mentioned in the article (from the Journal the same day) below as suffering damage. (Note how the photo of pretty flag-draped Colleen Conley of Wellington is conveniently in the middle of the article!)

I'm not sure if the storm had anything to do with it, but by late 1976, Sugar 'N Spice was closing down. Here's a classified ad from January 3, 1977 announcing the sale of the cash register, mimeograph (remember those?), and other office items.

It's kind of sad to see these stores, as well as the independent pharmacies that often had their own card/gift sections, go away.