Kresge's, Ben Franklins& Woolworth's were Dime Stores we will remember.
Nylon hosiery was sold there too, and during the war women stood in line to get some from the new shipments as they were scarce. My mom learned how to save hers and never threw a pair away but matched them up best she could to put colors together. (These were the days before pantyhose.) I learned to do that too.

These were our favorite shopping places before Malls and Kmart and Wal-Mart were invented.
When in high school many of my friends worked in Woolworth's or the Drugstore for 35¢ an hour. I thought that sounded so good. BUT
My father wouldn't allow me to work a regular job. He said I had the rest of my life to work.

I never had any money like the rest of the kids did have. I did baby-sit for 25¢ an hour so was able to put a few dollars in the bank and buy myself some sweaters and scarves. We wore neck scarves with our sweaters. The cost 25¢ each and I had every color you could ever available.

Two grocery stores I remember shopping were Piggly Wiggly
and A & P (Atlantic Pacific)
These were self serve.
These were bigger supermarkets than the neighborhood grocery stores which were on many corners and owned by families. Our regular shopping was done at the corner stores.

We shopped at a local Mom & Pop grocery store near our home for smaller things. One of those stores was next door to our 10th Ward Grade school in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. 

If we ever had an extra penny or two we could go next door during lunch and pick out a special piece of candy. The owners were so kind and patient with us as we made our big decision. What a variety we had to choose from and we each had to think a long time to make our special purchase.   I loved the long licorice.
and Root Beer Barrels. 

Candy cigarettes were popular because everybody smoked!Licorice pipes were good too but more money.

Here are My favorites Root Beer Barrels and long stands of licorice. Only 1¢ or sometimes 3 for 2 cents. Bubble gum was another favorite. (This was before gum machines.) We bought it from the jar, but don't get caught chewing it in school or it would have to be stuck on our nose the rest of the day!

Dad (Del) remembers Good & Plenty licorice and Bit of Honey.

The owner was so patient and kind to us as we made our decisions. Sometimes she would put an extra piece in our brown paper candy bag.

Catalogs
When I was in grade school in the 40's, mother would order items from Sears & Roebuck catalog and also Montgomery Wards catalog. Problem was we didn't buy enough to get a free catalog, but our grandparents loaned us theirs.
$25 would buy an entire outfit. Suit $6.98 for the best, hats 79¢ and patent leather ladies heels for $1.59. (Any wonder why it is so difficult to understand the prices of today?)
After we were married it was common to see these catalog stores in many small towns.
Those living in rural areas relied upon catalog shopping. These were the days before TV and Computers.

Today it seems we are coming full circle they say. We now can order through the internet without even leaving home. Our computers and TV commercials allow us the convenience of shopping from home. We can order many an item with 800 numbers shown on television.
My mother and I have both ordered from BLAIR catalog and you can order from Blair.com. Good Women's clothing that doesn't have to cost a lot. Often have Free shipping included.

When we were done looking at the catalogs for the year we were allowed to cut out pictures for a scrapbook and then we would take them to school for the paper drive.

YoungLivingEssentialoils

(http://www.youngliving.com/

Innerlightinc.com are websites I frequent.
http://www.innerlightinc.com
If you would like information contact me at nlwjcars@aol.com or jcarstens572@cox.net

Schwans.com is a site I use to order my bi-weekly frozen foods. Meats, vegetables and ice cream are delivered to my freezer. Even while traveling we call Schwan's and they stop where we are parked with our motor home so we can get supplied.

Spiegel's Catalog was popular with many home buyers.
Capper's Weekly was a very popular publication. Del's mother used both of these.

I used catalogs for illustrations when finding pictures for illustrations, and also when making scrapbooks for school.

Catalogs were also used to sit small children up to the table when a high chair was not available.

Grandpa Buck Haag/Judy's Dad talked about the iceman coming to his house to deliver 1-2" blocks of ice which they picked up with large tongs and delivered the ice box."

In the 1920"s when we were kids we would follow the ice truck and get chips of ice to suck on. The ice was cut from rivers and lakes nearby in the winter and stored in an underground facility or on top of the ground in Ice Houses. Straw was the insulator which kept it cold in the summer.

"We thought the ice house could never catch on fire, but one did. Half Moon Lake in Eau Claire, Wisconsin it burned to the ground, horses, wagons, everything. 1920's. It stunk like heck, it was terrible!"

I, Judy, remember the Ice Man coming in a small truck three times a week and fill our icebox. I was 3-5 years old and loved to hear him coming. We always got a few ice chips to suck on.

Lived in Cadott, Wisconsin & owned

"The General Store " in Cadott.

My Dad, Waldro Haag "Buck" told me he loved to work there when he was in school. Gpa would even pay him for his labor, and the money helped him to buy school clothes. It was the largest store and sold everything from hardware, household items and groceries.

Dad said his mother, Maude, also had to work there, she didn't like it. Couldn't wait to be married.

I remember going in to that store however it was after Gpa retired.

Gpa was 88 when I was 3 years old.

I have a picture with my 2 Great Grandpa's then.

Gpa Bucholz was the other one and he was also 88 in this picture. He was not a merchant but a farmer. He was Gma Dora Johnson's father.

Peddlers
We didn't call them peddlers, but the Jewell Tea

Man and the Watkins man would come every

month and bring supplies for the kitchen.

Fuller Brush came with brushes and household cleaning supplies.

I remember Gma had many dishes, bowls, teapot

made by Jewell Tea. Mom always purchased the best spices from

Watkins. She used their vanilla.
We got some concentrate made of cherry and

strawberry and orange. All we had to do was add

water for a good sweet drink. (This was before powder

ed Kool-Aid.) We kids thought that was special. We

never did get to have pop or cokes like people do

today. That was not "good" for us.
We didn't buy from Fuller Brush which was

door to door, however, in 1947 my parents were introduced to

Stanley Home Products. Grandmother Haag

was at that time demonstrating in homes for the company and convinced my father to leave J.C. Penny Company where he was an assistant manager and working 12-18 hours a day making very little money.

After coming home from the war he made a change and began demonstrating at Home Parties where Hostesses shared in the profits by inviting friends into their homes.

Efficient Sales Parties
Frank Stanley Beveridge, a successful Fuller Brush salesman and Vice President of the Company saw the potential in door-to-door selling. 

In 1931 he opened his own cleaning supplies company, called Stanley Home Products. Based in western Massachusetts, the company followed in its predecessors' footsteps, sending men out knocking on doors and selling to housewives. Beveridge learned that one of his salesmen was making record-breaking sales by demonstrating his products in the living rooms of women "hostesses" who volunteered their homes and invited their friends to attend "a Stanley party." At these gatherings, the salesman could demonstrate his products to a roomful of invited "guests" and then take orders from many women at once -- a far more efficient method than knocking cold on doors, selling to one person at a time. In exchange for her efforts, the hostess of the Stanley party was given a complimentary hostess prize, such as a toaster, a coffee pot, or free Stanley products.

A Good Job for a Busy Mother

Beveridge saw the potential in this new idea, and by 1940 Stanley Home Products had moved away from door-to-door cold calling, and become strictly a home party sales company. This radical change brought women into the business. In fact, home party sales became a convenient and lucrative business for women. Throughout the 1940s women discovered that they could make some extra "pin" money -- or even support their families -- through a job with Stanley. The work offered them flexibility and autonomy they couldn't find in other jobs. They could choose how many hours they wanted to work, and control their own schedules. And Beveridge wasn't complaining, either -- by 1950, his company's sales had hit a record $70 million.

Judy Speaks
A Demonstrator

When nine years old I (Judy Haag) put on my first Stanley Party. I was recognized by the Company in their monthly STANDARD newsletter.

I observed my parents and said, "I could do that. May I?"
Mother asked who would do this for me, and I said I would find someone. I did.  My grandma Johnson was my hostess and she invited all of the relatives and neighbors near her house.  I gave her a Lucite hairbrush, comb, and  mirror Dresser set.  I was so excited!

Dad's branch Sales Manager drove to Eau Claire from St. Paul, Minnesota and took the pictures and wrote the story which would later be printed by the company.
Yes, that is me and I use many of the products to this day. I really believed in what I was telling people and Still do! That Flesh Brush you see me holding is one of my most favorite life time products from the company.

Today I look for the older ones from the 40's as they are still in great shape. The new company has never matched up with the quality of brushes that Stanley sold in those Depression & War years and continued in the 50's and 60's.  They gave life time guarantees, and They so last a lifetime!  I am 70 years now and still using one of the newer originals with a plastic slotted handle.  The first handle was wood.
People loved to shop at home parties because it was entertainment and there were always free gifts and games and prizes.

Stanley Home Products changed our lives!  Dad always felt good because he was able to help people at the same time he was earning a good living.

Within 6 months of working for Stanley, My Dad had purchased and paid for our first car, a Studebaker. We were so proud!
As we drove through town we though everyone was looking at us.  His previous job as Assistant Manager of J.C. Penny Co was a good name, long hours daily and little pay.
Like one we had only the first was a 1946. 

Many did as Arthur Godfrey, a radio show host, said about this new Studebaker, " It looks the same on both ends so you can't tell which way it is going."Through most of the decade of the 1950s Godfrey hosted a daily radio program and appeared in two top-ten prime time television shows, all for CBS. As the new medium was invading American households, there was something about Godfrey's wide grin, his infectious chuckle, his unruly shock of red hair that made millions tune in not once, but twice a week.
Later Tupperware became popular for its home parties as did many others who followed this same

idea of selling and buying merchandise.

Now in 2003 we seldom hear of such a way of selling.

Avon continues to be sold door to door from the

Avon Lady. Mary Kay cosmetics have the home demonstrations today. Mary Kay started with Stanley Home Products and was so successful she started her own company following the party plan. She developed her company for Women.

Milk and Ice Delivery
Judy Haag remembers the Ice Man coming to our house 3 X's a week.

He would bring a chunk of ice for our Ice box which kept our food cold. The ice box was in a nook build outside the kitchen but available with the front of it level with the wall so we could get into it from the front. The ice man put the ice in the top from the outside which had a door covering it that pulled up so he could put a block of ice inside

The milkman came every day with a quart of milk in a glass bottle which was returnable. We would put empty bottles for another full one. One bottle had a top with a separation of a smaller opening 2" from the top. The cream separated from the milk so if mom needed cream she would put a special spoon into the bottle holding it tightly and pouring off the cream. If she didn't need cream she would shake the bottle well and we would drink whole milk.

1930-1945.

Del Carstens tells about the milk wagon in the 1930's in Beatrice, Nebraska. The wagon had a tall white square box and was pulled by a horse. The milkman would fill crates with bottles and walk from house to house to deliver milk. The horse would pull the wagon to the next corner and wait. Then the milkman would get in and fill up the crate and go again and the horse would go alone to the next corner and wait again.

We used whatever we could buy, but some of the popular soaps were:
Duz "Duz does everything", 
Tide was sold then, commercial on Radio would sing, "Tides in, dirt's out.", and then there was Rinso. "Rinso white"
Everyone used bleach and bluing. All one really had to do to make the whites snow white was to add a few magic drops of Boy Blue Bluing with the handy dropper cap.
Regardless of the many whiteners and brighteners laundry day was still known as

"Blue Monday". 1938-1949

During the war in the 40's we were encouraged to help with the war by purchasing Bonds. Few people had much money but as children we would take a dime or two to school once a week. On Thursdays we could purchase a stamp and add it to our book. When we filled our books we could purchase a Bond. Every little bit any of us did we were told was a great help for our country.

Paper drives and Clothing drives were monthly activities at school to help people in the building of their countries which suffered from the war.

Every week we brought all the newspapers and magazines we could carry to school and add them to the paper drive. The paper was sold and the money was distributed for the war victims.
Clothing drives were held for the same purpose. We would put our name in the pocket of the clothing. One day I received a letter written to "little girl Judith", Thanking me for the coat I had sent to them in Germany. It was keeping their daughter warm.The day I received that letter was very exciting and helped me understand better that someone was benefiting from our sharing. I was 9 years old. I still have the envelope and letter from those days. I had never seen a foreign postage stamp before.

Del remembers saving metal and cans as well as rubber. I remember Dad saving all the foil from the gum wrappers until we had a big ball of foil.

It was a long 7 miles with very rutted roads. The ride was not smooth as it might be today.

Lived in and near Pickerell, Nebraska.

Beatrice, was the long trip. At least 10 miles?

War Bond Advertisement
"Nat'l Geographic Magazine"
In grade school

we had Thursdays set as stamp day. We would take 10¢ and buy a stamps which we put into a book.

When the book was full we could put it toward the purchase of

a bond. This was our way of helping with the expenses of the war and saving money.

My grandparents purchased bonds for me which I could have when I went to college.

I used mine with their permission when I got married.

I had 3 bonds and that helped us get started.