Feb 15, 1950 – Ohio Fuel Gas Company Ad

It's been a while since I featured this little guy, the gas flame mascot for the Ohio Fuel Gas Company. The above ad for an automatic gas water heater ran in the Lorain Journal on Feb. 15, 1950 – 67 years ago this month.

(I probably should have posted an Ohio Edison ad with Reddy Kilowatt since the last few days have been all about Thomas Edison. Oh well.)

You might remember that I had been on a unsuccessful quest to come up with the gas company mascot's name until I received an assist from the Michigan State University Library – who revealed that his name was Speedy. (I wrote about it in this two-part series, here and here.)

Anyway, old time hot water heaters are certainly something for me to be nostalgic about.

They used to last for 15 or 20 years, until you found the inevitable puddle of water on the floor – and then it was time to get a new one.

Nowadays they don't last half that long. And because of a change in building codes, mine has to be vented. Thus I have a fan on top of it that I hear almost every time I rinse off a crusty fork with hot water.