Lawson's Dutch Loaf Ad – Nov. 16, 1966

On the same day yesterday's Old Dutch beer ad ran in the Lorain Journal back in November 1966, elsewhere in that same edition was this nearly full-page ad for Lawson's, featuring its popular Dutch Loaf.

Courtesy Rittbergers.com

What in tunket is Dutch Loaf anyway?

Well, according to this Wikipedia entry, it's a lunch meat made from "coarse-ground lean pork and beef mixed and or coated with spices, formed into a loaf shape and then smoked over a hardwood fire."

Apparently it's not really consumed in the land of windmills, wooden shoes and leaky dikes; it's really more of a Pennsylvania Dutch thing.

Although my brother Ken was fond of Dutch Loaf, I wasn't a fan of the stuff as a kid. I'm sure I reached instead for the salami or baloney (or bologna if you prefer) to put between my slices of DeLuca Bakery white bread.

But now as I approach curmudgeon-hood, Dutch Loaf actually sounds pretty good. After all, meat shaped into a loaf is one of my favorite meals.

Alas, I'm a few decades late if I want to wash it down with an Old Dutch though.

Lawson's Dutch Loaf Ad – May 20, 1968

I still can’t believe some eagle-eyed readers saw that tiny Lawson’s sign in the Sandy’s photo from a few days ago.

Anyway, here’s yet another ad for Lawson’s Dutch Loaf. It ran in the Journal back on May 20, 1968 – 50 years ago this month. (You'd think I was Dutch, judging by how many times that I blog about things with 'Dutch' in the title.)

I posted a similar ad back from 1966 in 2016 here, but with a different sales price.

This newspaper ad is interesting in that it was pretty big – almost 3/4 of a page! And it only features four basic products: bacon, eggs, milk and Dutch Loaf.

That’s a pretty simple marketing plan. But I bet it worked. A lot of Lorainites probably had Dutch Loaf sandwiches that week. Maybe even the Brady Bunch.

Note the special logo commemorating Lawson’s 29th anniversary, celebrating its 1939 founding.

By the way, here’s a link to a good article about how there came to be Lawson’s stores in Hawaii in the last few years, by way of Asia. The article includes a very thorough history of the beloved chain as well.

Sugardale Cold Cuts Ad – April 15, 1964

I saw this ad for Sugardale Cold Cuts that ran in the Lorain Journal back on April 15, 1964 and it got me thinking.

No, not about Hamlet, the cheery porcine Sugardale ad mascot. I'm referring to just how much America's eating habits regarding lunch have changed over the last sixty years.

Back in the 1960s and 70s, Mom always bought a lot of lunch meat each week at the grocery store, or Lawson's. Lunch was always a sandwich for Dad and us kids, with an incredible selection of lunch meat to choose from: bologna (or baloney if you prefer), hard salami, olive loaf, pickle and pimento, Canadian Bacon, beef log, chicken loaf (a loaf of chicken?), chipped chopped ham, very crumbly corned beef slices, souse, and Dutch Loaf.

The Sugardale ad above has a more limited selection in its pre-packaged 'cold cuts' (a term Mom never used): bologna, pickle and pimento loaf, and Berliner. 

Berliner?

I had to look that one up. The German Butchery website says it is 'a mildly flavored fully cooked German cold cut made out of finely minced pork. And the Pendle Hill Meat Market website describes it as 'a traditional German sausage made with a blend of pork and beef. Finely ground and seasoned with a savory blend of spices.' Strangely, both companies are located in Australia. Hey, I thought they ate Vegemite sandwiches Down Under.

Fast forward to the 2000s, and it's generally accepted that lunch meat is somewhat unhealthy. This Cleveland Clinic article tells the sad tale of how processed meats are high in calories and low in protein. (Conversely, the Sugardale ad boasts that the company's meat products 'give you a new way too put Protein Glow in your lunches.)

And sandwiches seem to have lost their appeal these days, perhaps due to everyone trying to cut their carbs. Most people I know seem to bring leftovers for their mid-day repast. As for me, I tend to have a light lunch of Cup-a-Soup, although a sandwich made of lunch meat sounds pretty good right now.

Perhaps by the power of suggestion, this blog post will usher in a glorious comeback for cold cuts in the Lorain County area.

Lawson's Restaurant?

Here are two interesting ads from fifty years ago that I didn’t quite have time to post in February. They’re both for the Lawson's Restaurant that was located at 900 N. Leavitt Road in Amherst. The ad above ran in the Journal on Feb. 17, 1971.

About a week later on Feb. 23, 1971 this full-page grand opening ad appeared in the same paper.

I first wrote about how Lawson’s dallied with opening their own restaurants back here. Here’s a promotional postcard showing an unnamed location.

It’s an intriguing concept. But although you might expect the menu to include Dutch Loaf sandwiches with a glass of "Big O" Orange Juice to wash it down, it looks like they had higher culinary aspirations with those char-broiled steak dinners mentioned in the Journal ads.

Nevertheless, the Lawson’s Restaurants apparently didn’t last too long. Within a few years, it was rebranded as L-K Townhouse. Today there’s a Denny’s at the site.

Maybe they should have put Dutch Loaf on the menu, with potato chips on the side and a little bowl of Lawson’s Chip Dip.

****

Here’s a photo of the Denny’s at 900 N. Leavitt Road,  courtesy of Google Maps.

Thanksgiving at Lawsons – November 1971

Fifty years ago, having Lawson’s prepare Thanksgiving dinner was one of the options for families that didn’t want Mom to spend all day in the kitchen.

No, I’m not talking about picking up a sumptuous ready-made feast of Dutch Loaf sandwiches, a bag of chips, a container of Lawson’s Chip Dip and a half-gallon of milk. 

I meant going out to enjoy a fine meal at Lawson’s Family Restaurants.

Below is an ad that ran in the Journal back on Nov. 23, 1971.

You might remember that I wrote about the Lawson’s Restaurants back here. The one in our area was located at 900 N. Leavitt Road in Amherst (the same building that Denny’s is in today).

The menu looked pretty good for that 1971 feast: roast turkey with dressing, broasted chicken, baked ham with raisin sauce, deep fried rainbow trout. After all, everybody doesn’t like turkey.

For side dishes: whipped white or baked sweet potatoes; mixed vegetables.

And, of course, your choice of pumpkin pie, apple pie or an ice cream sundae for dessert.

The ad didn’t include an address or phone number, so I hope nobody accidentally made the trek to a regular Lawson’s. They might have had to settle for some turkey loaf sandwiches, washed down with a glass of Big O Orange Juice.

Thanksgiving in Lorain – 1975

Looks like the hunter became the hunted
in this illustration from a Lawson's ad

For my last installment looking back at Thanksgivings of yesteryear, let's drop in on 1975. 

The big story on the front page of the Thanksgiving edition of the Journal on Nov 27, 1975 was the $2.3 billion bailout proposal by President Gerald Ford to rescue financially ailing New York City. 

Elsewhere on the front page was the traditional kickoff of the Clothe-A-Child campaign, which replaced the Mary Lee Tucker Christmas Benefit Show in 1969. (I've written almost two dozen posts about the Mary Lee Tucker program, including a 5-part series about its history starting here.)

The Page of Opinion included another well-written and inspiring editorial about Thanksgiving.

For eating out on the big day, there were more choices than in previous years, including the Elyria Holiday Inn, the Oberlin Inn, the Showboat in Huron and – a favorite of the Brady Bunch – the Brown Derby on Kolbe Road. For several years around that time it was our special place to celebrate a big event.

However, if you were thinking of a nice Thanksgiving Roast Beef Sandwich, you were out of luck, pardner.

If you wanted some entertainment beyond Thanksgiving TV specials, you could head out to The Joker at Midway Mall and see the Michael Stanley Band in concert.

For those that prepared their own Thanksgiving meal, the grocery and convenience stores ran the usual ads about a week before. Looking at the A&P ad, I had forgotten about the goofy Price and Price campaign.

Good to see Lawson's was offering its iconic Dutch Loaf for those that planned a more eclectic Thanksgiving menu.

And for those who wished to enjoy a cocktail, the late great Cotton Club offered a coupon towards any of its products, including Less Sweet Ginger Ale (with Big Ginger on the label) and 50/50 – two favorites in our house.

Lastly, the days of the Thanksgiving-themed ads seemed to have ended in the mid-70s. I had a hard time finding any at all around the holiday, until I found an old reliable: First Federal Savings of Lorain.

Lawson’s Ad – April 3, 1963

Courtesy westparkhistory.com

Here’s an old Lawson's ad sure to rekindle some memories. It ran in the Lorain Journal on April 3, 1963 and very simply promotes one item: cottage cheese. But it’s the charming rendering of the convenience store with its iconic milk bottle sign that packs a nostalgic punch.

At right is a photo of a store similar to that depicted in the ad, courtesy of westparkhistory.com.

When you entered a Lawson’s store, you knew it would be clean and well-stocked.

According to this Wiki page, Lawson’s originated in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The original store merely sold milk, but eventually grew into a chain of mini-supermarkets that was primarily Ohio-based.

(I posted an ad celebrating the June 1959 opening of the very first Lawson’s in Lorain here. I also posted a October 1959 ad here, a May 1962 Ice Cream ad here, a July 4th 1962 ad here, and a 1966 Dutch Loaf ad here.)

In the mid-1980s, Lawson’s stores in the U. S. were sold to Dairy Mart. Amazingly, the Lawson’s name lives on as a convenience store franchise chain in Japan.

Today, former Lawson’s stores dot the cityscape of many Ohio cities. You can find them repurposed as everything from a pizza joint to a doctor’s office.

Lawson's Halloween Ad – Oct. 28, 1964

The mention of Lawson's always conjures up pleasant memories for those of us that shopped there. So it's no surprise that the regional convenience store chain conveniently pops up on this blog regularly. Its ads were always well done and designed with a theme appropriate to the season.

Above is a particularly handsome ad that ran in the Journal on October 28, 1964. I like the various type fonts and the ad has great nostalgic appeal. It really puts you in the mood for cider and donuts. 

(I even had to go get a glass of cider out of the fridge while preparing this post. It's Honeycrisp Cider from Burnham Orchards on Route 113. Very tasty.)

It's funny how so many of us have fond memories of Lawson's, as well as Convenient Food Mart out of Elyria. Both chains maintained a high degree of quality, with clean, well-stocked stores. I really liked the Sunshine Farms milk sold at Convenient.

Open Pantry was another local chain, but it didn't have the same allure as the other two. 

Today, it's somewhat depressing going into most convenient stores, even 7-Elevens. You feel like you'd have to be nuts to buy anything to eat there. They seem to exist just to sell alcohol and lottery tickets. No chipped, chopped ham or Dutch Loaf there.

On the other hand, I have no problem getting a sub at a GetGo Café. In fact, I stopped at the Avon store recently and picked up my favorite sandwich – The Pilgrim. 

It's a great sandwich. I even tried to replicate it in the Brady Kitchen® but without success.

Lawson's Ad – March 3, 1963

Lawson's seems to be one topic that I have endless milked during the past year.

Why? For one thing, the convenient chain sponsored the ill-fated Issue 1 in the fall of 1962, attempting to do away with the Blue Law so the firm could be open on Monday. And Lawson's was a company that believed in the power of advertising, with huge ads pushing one main sales item, such as the ever-popular Dutch Loaf. 

The full-page ad below is a little different in that it's not selling milk, orange juice or lunch meat; it's selling an idea – specifically that everyone was enjoying lower milk prices because of Lawson's. It appeared in the Lorain Journal on March 3, 1963.

Lawson's makes the case that because of its efficiencies in production, its streamlined distribution system and low container costs, the cost of any brand of milk in a market where Lawson's was doing business was lower than the national average.

It's an interesting feel-good ad, but I'm not sure if it won any new converts. I think they'd have been better off pushing hard salami on sale.

****

It's funny how I feel nostalgic about Lawson's, despite the fact it probably helped put the local dairies out of business.

We drank a lot of milk in the Brady House when my siblings and I were kids. We had a glass of it with breakfast and lunch, and of course we put it on cereal, which we we had not only at breakfast, but also as a snack.

We were still having Home Dairy deliver milk in the late 1960s/early 70s. I can still see the wire milk holder in our garage next to the steps. But at some point, our milk man had come into the house (without knocking) and startled Mom. I think the story was that it was hot out and he wanted to put the milk in the fridge. 

At that point, the time was ripe to drop home delivery and just buy it ourselves – probably at Lawson's, which was only a few minutes away.

Grand Opening of Lawsons – April 1965

Lawson's convenience stores has been a favorite topic on this blog, amassing twenty posts over the last 16 years. We all have our favorite memories of the ubiquitous store chain, including its Big-O Orange Juice, its famous Lawson's Chip Dip, and the great selection of lunch meat (such as chipped chopped ham, dutch loaf, etc.) available in the well-stocked, well-lit stores.

We each have our own favorite location that we frequented as well. For the Bradys, it was the one on Oberlin Avenue near W. 30th Street – where we might would stop if we needed some lunch meat in between our weekly grocery shopping trips. But no matter which location you went to, you could be assured of a clean store with quality items on its shelves.

I've posted some grand openings of specific stores before, and here's another one: the store at 1426 Oberlin Avenue, right across from the Lorain Creamery. The ad at the top of this post appeared in the Journal on April 1, 1965.

It was kind of an aggressive move, locating a store specializing in milk right across from a hometown dairy. But most of the popular items that the convenience store carried weren't available at the Creamery anyway. 

The Lawson's chain was later acquired by Dairy Mart, and it appears that the store at 1426 Oberlin Avenue was involved. But at some point – either when the store possibly decided to end its affiliation with the chain, or when Dairy Mart was closing a massive number of stores during its bankruptcy – the store became Daily Mart.

Hey, at least the new name fit on the existing Dairy Mart sign perfectly.

Convenient Food Mart Ad – May 5, 1967

Convenience stores hastened the demise of the local dairies in the 1960s. After all, why wait for milk to be delivered (and left outside in all sorts of weather) when you could pick it up at your own convenience, along with other things you might need, like lunch meat and chips?

Thus, chains such as Lawson’s, 7-Eleven, and Open Pantry served a need, and did it with clean, well-lit and well-stocked stores that stayed open late.

Convenient Food Mart is another regional chain that – unlike some of its 1960s competitors – is still around. Above is a large ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on May 5, 1967.

The corporate website reveals the company history. It notes, "William J. Bresler and Walter R. Schaub founded Convenient Food Mart, one of the first and one of the best convenience store chains, in Chicago in 1958. Their idea was to provide customers a supermarket in miniature, which would be located in the customer’s neighborhood and perhaps owned by one of the neighbors. The new store they envisioned would be open seven days a week, from early morning until late at night or 24 hours a day.

"This concept was launched in the nation’s heartland and immediately proved successful.”

In Lorain County, the local Convenient Food Marts had their roots in an Elyria dairy. As noted here on the website, "The original Company had its beginning in the year 1911, when Edward Seabold Sr. began delivering milk to homes on the West Side of Elyria. The milk came from the family farm on Telegraph Road.  Ten-gallon cans were carried on a horse drawn wagon and milk was hand dipped at each home into the customer’s container. Delivery was made twice a day, due to the absence of refrigeration and pasteurization. The business was then known as Seabold Dairy.

"A few years later, the operation was moved to Lake Avenue (now called North Gateway Boulevard) on the same land where the present Company headquarters are located.

"In 1919, Edward was joined in the growing business by his brother, Carl. The business was incorporated in 1932 as Elyria Dairies, Inc., and the trade name “Sunshine Farms Dairy” was created.

To develop an additional market for Sunshine Farms Dairy products, the Seabold brothers formed North Central Ohio Convenient Food Mart, Inc. in 1964, and acquired the franchise for Convenient Food Mart stores. Convenient Food Mart opened its first store on July 12th, 1965 in Lorain, Ohio."

Even though the 1967 ad lists Hills Brothers Coffee (my parents’ favorite), I don’t think we ever shopped at Convenient Food Mart. The closest store to us was on Leavitt Road, near W. 21st Street. It was more convenient to visit the Lawson’s on Oberlin Avenue to pick up things we needed (such as dutch loaf).

At least Convenient Food Mart had something that neither Lawson’s or Open Pantry had: an advertising mascot – the customer who is king!

Lawson's Fourth of July Specials Ad 1962

Lawson's has been a favorite topic on this blog. It was the first of the convenience stores in our area (opening in Lorain in 1959), and the former stores – easy to recognize thanks to the chain's distinctive architecture – will continue to haunt the streetscape of Lorain County for years to come.

But sixty years ago, Lawson's was still in its early days here, and it advertised plenty in the Journal. Above is a full-page ad that ran in the paper on July 2, 1962. 

I like the serene scene of the young nuclear family on a pic-a-nic. There are the two children – one boy, one girl per government specifications – and Junior has on the striped shirt that was so popular back then. Even Charlie Brown's pal Linus wore one.

Mom looks like a young Grace Kelly.

And we get yet another Cleveland Indians ticket outlet. You could pick up your Tribe tickets and some Budget-Pak Ice Cream at the same time.

What, no Dutch Loaf on sale?

Happy Fourth of July!

Well, it’s July 4th – and it’s hard to believe the year is half over already.

If you were preparing for a holiday feast in Lorain 60 years ago, you might have consulted this Kroger ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on July 1, 1957.

Note the appearance of our old pal Toppie, the Top Value Stamp elephant, at the top of the ad, appropriately enough.

Some of the food brands listed in the ad are kind of interesting.

‘Clover Valley Pork & Beans’ are featured. I recognize the Clover Valley brand from shopping trips to Dollar General; sure enough, after checking online, I see that while Kroger was the original registrant of the brand, Dollar General is now the trademark owner.

Note Swift’s Premium “wafer-sliced’ meats – exclusive to Kroger – including hard salami, bologna, cooked ham, cooked specialty, hot-o-collo and spiced luncheon meat (sounds like it might be Dutch Loaf). Swift’s history goes back to 1855; the company is still around, although it was purchased by a Brazilian company in 2007.

I like the brand name of the margarine listed in the ad: Eatmore Margarine. (It kind of reminds me of the character in the classic Monty Python Travel Agent sketch, with the name: Mr. Smoke-too-much.)

Ontario Ad – March 26, 1970

Since this blog began back in 2009, there’s been more than 2,800 individual posts. But only one of those posts has more than forty comments left by readers.

Can you guess which post continues to attract readers more than nine years after it first appeared?

No, it’s not one featuring Reddy Kilowatt or Old Dutch Beer; it’s a post I did back in February 2011 entitled, “Remember Ontario Dept. Store?”

Apparently a lot of people still do, because the comments section for that post has become an online gathering place for former managers and employees of Ontario stores in other cities to correspond and reminisce. Their family members comment as well, and there’s even one from one of the founder’s children.

All of them have pleasant memories of a company that more than one of them believe could have given Walmart a run for its money.

So to keep the party going, here’s an Ontario ad with a ‘Fishing Headquarters” theme that ran in the Lorain Journal fifty years ago this month on March 26, 1970.

It’s fun examining the ad and checking out the various lures and other products, as well as the brand names such as Heddon®. And I like the ‘Huck Finn’ cartoon kid with his homemade fishing pole, and the cat waiting patiently for his share of the catch.

As I mentioned back on this post, my father enjoyed fishing. Unfortunately, he failed to lure my brothers and me to the hobby.

Maybe in retirement I’ll get myself a new Zebco and a loaf of Wonder Bread (for dough balls) and see if I can relive those Saturday afternoons in the 1960s.