Hammin' it up at Easter – 1953

Are you planning on a traditional Easter Sunday dinner of ham?

These days, traditions seem to be dying out. I remember last year at Thanksgiving, there were more people at my work planning on having ham on that day instead of turkey. A few said it was just too much work to prepare the traditional stuffed bird.

But ham is different. With the popularity and availability of the spiral-sliced, pre-cooked variety, I don't think it's going away as the definitive Easter choice anytime soon.

Seventy years ago, ham was the featured item in several local grocery store ads. First up is this ad for longtime Lorain grocery store Fisher Foods. The full-page ad ran in the Lorain Journal back on April 2, 1953.

It's interesting how all of these full-page grocery ads disappeared from the newspapers many years ago. But the stores print their own circulars now. I'm sure the Journal misses the revenue. 

It's quite a meaty lineup. Besides the whole or shank ham, there's oven-ready turkeys, stewing chickens, fresh pork sausage, fresh ground meat (beef?) and oven-ready ducklings. 

And if you prefer your ham from a can, there's Armour's Star Cooked Canned Ham. Here's a full-color 1954 ad for your viewing enjoyment.

But getting back to the ad. There's plenty of great bunny clip art, with one triumphantly lifting a whole platter of ham with hare-culean strength.

Here's the second full-page local grocery store ad from Easter 1953 with the emphasis on ham. This one's for the IGA chain and ran in the Journal on April 2, 1953.

Like the Fisher Food ad, IGA ad promotes a carnivorous Easter menu, with rib steaks and pork sausage. And that's no baloney (which is also featured in the ad for 45 cents a pound).

There's a nice listing of the various IGA stores at the bottom of the ad, with Arti's, Ridgeview, Jay's (on Oberlin Avenue), Pazder's, Carl's, Central and Mischka's (in Amherst).

One last thing. I know it's in bad taste (my observation, not the ham), but the rabbit in the ad kind of reminds me of World War II-era caricatures of, uh, Hitler. He's missing his trademark mustache, but that big lock of black hare hair... oh, forget it.

Continuing our Parade of Ham, here's an ad for Polansky's, a favorite repeat topic on this blog, since I shop there once in a while. The ad ran in the Journal on April 2, 1953.

Once again, a meat-market employed rabbit is stuffing the grocery bag with ham – instead of his own kind, at least. I wonder how many people have even eaten rabbit in their lifetime? I guess watching too many Bugs Bunny cartoons where someone (Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, etc.) wanted him for a stew (or hassenpfeffer, if you prefer) probably made me not too game to the idea.