Here’s a fun blast from the past. Yesterday, someone mentioned S&H Green Shield stamps and the stuff we used to purchase with them.
Today, I was having a conversation about communicating old school with a person, and about how the generation soon to come will find new methods to avoid the censors and monitors. I mentioned the Green Shield stamp reminder and we had a blast reminiscing about all the stuff we used them for.
I think just about every small appliance and cookware for my very first apartment was the result of using S&H Greenshield stamps.
So the conversation expands…. Date yourself. How many of you remember them, and what did you use them for?
Got all kinds of things with Green Stamps and a lot of other stamps given out at different businesses.
But my best Green Stamp story has to do with a niece who my husband and I raised for a few years while her mother was deciding whether to be an adult or not.
One day at a garage sale I saw a big baggie full of Green Stamps for sale for a quarter. I asked the woman if there were any Green Stamp redemption centers around any longer, since it had been years since Green Stamps were given out at any stores, and like me she didn’t know.
Telling my niece about Green Stamps, where they came from and what they did, I decided to buy the big lot for a quarter and we would find out together.
Within a couple hours we learned there was one redemption center in St. Paul, and it wasn’t too far from where we lived.
We counted our stamps (great learning exercise for a six year old) and headed to the “store.”
A short while later my niece was hugging her new baby doll, complete with stroller, clothes and accessories. She was so excited I bought her a brightly colored helium balloon, too, and took a picture of her with all her treasures.
Very sweet story. I remember Green Stamps too. They were clever idea. Your story reminds me of happy times.
I remember my mom collecting S&H Green Stamps in the early and mid-1970’s. . There were little books to paste them into. I don’t remember what she redeemed them for.
I recall there was another one too. Gold stamps?
Blue Chip stamps also. When I was first married things were so tight I’d sell my full books to my mom for $3.00 each snd use the money for more food. Our food budget was $10.00a week tops!
I don’t remember what my mom redeemed the stamps for, maybe a toaster or a vacuum cleaner…but I do remember the indentured servitude I was forced to endure by pasting a mountain of the darn things into booklets….LoL….I ain’t complaining….there was no internet and we only got 3 channels on the tv, and it got me out of chopping weeds in the corn patch during the heat of the day…and it taught me patience….and that being a whiny titty baby only lengthened the time of servitude….there was plenty of time to play ball with my buddies in the afternoon when it cooled off! Good memories of growing up in a good place and a good time!
You bet!
I remember my mom collecting them and I remember asking her what she was saving them up for but I can’t remember exactly what the items were. I do remember getting excited when she had finally saved enough to get the item she wanted.
My mom kept the stamps in a cigar box. I would use the stamps that were intact to the size of a dollar bill and pretend they were money when I played store…..brings back good memories.
I don’t remember the Green Stamps per se but I remember seeing S&H Green Stamps insignias posted outside businesses all over the place.
I never really knew what they were for.
TV Trays and a patio table.
I remember my grandma using green stamps to buy her christmas gifts. She didn’t have much money but she got nice useful gifts with the stamps. she gave me a small Revere copper bottom pot that I used in my first apartment in college. i also remember pasting the stamps in the books and the ladies at the store who had the rubber thumb covers to help them flip through the books faster to count the right number of pages when you made a purchase.
I remember them from my childhood and early adult, married years. We got small appliances, added to my Revere Ware cookware, dishware items, etc. I learned early on the get a small bowl of water to wet the glue on the stamps and not our tongues. Also, I remember being elisted to paste those into my Mother’s books, and I in turn enlisted my older child into doing the same. Great memories of a golden time long ago.