The Stamp Collectors
I grew up in a family of philatelists.
For those of you not familiar with the term,
it has nothing to do with being a member of a religious sect…
like Presbyterians or Episcopalians,…
nor does it refer to any sort of kinky perversion on our part.
No, being philatelists simply meant we were avid stamp collectors.
Now, we weren’t interested in stamps from exotic countries like Nepal…
or stamps honoring royalty like King Faroud…
we weren’t even interested in stamps celebrating pop icons
like Liberace or Elvis.
We were very specific in our pursuit of stamps.
They had to be green.
Not just any green stamps…
S&H Green Stamps!
And we were not alone in our passion for collecting these sought-after stamps.
In fact, at the peak of its popularity…
some 80% of all American households were collecting Green Stamps.
Here’s a rather amazing fact:
In the early ‘60’s,…
S&H was distributing 3 times as many stamps as the United States Post office!!!
And with good reason.
These green babies were valuable.
I mean you could get stuff. LOTS of stuff!.
The way it worked was…
whenever you shopped at the grocery store or department store
or filled up with gas…
you would be rewarded with Green Stamps.
The more you spent, the more stamps you got…
the more stamps you got, the more stuff you could get.
You didn’t have to save the stamps in an old shoebox or your kitchen drawer…
because along with the stamps…
you were given paper stamp collection books.
24 pages, 50 stamps per page for a total of 1200 stamps per book.
The stamps were distributed in strips…
or if you were spending more…
you’d be presented with glorious sheets of green.
There was a whole lot of licking going on at our house.
Eventually my Mom suggested a moist sponge…
sparing me from an assortment of tongue diseases.
What made it a bit easier…
was that the stamps were available in denominations of 1, 10 and 50.
There were few things more thrilling to me…
than sticking one big ol’ “50-er”, taking care of one entire page!
When the book was filled, most times we would secure it with a rubber band.
We’d pile up the completed books in an old wooden box we kept on the
kitchen counter.
As strange as it may sound…
the family sitting around the table,
happily filling up our books,
as we all lobbied for what rewards we would eventually choose….
made for a fun, if quirky, family bonding experience.
Yeah, I know…simpler times.
But family bonding aside….
honestly, it was all about getting “free” stuff.
Now, one book ain’t gonna get you much.
But, if one could display some patience, some persistence,
and keep buying stuff ….
the rewards could be pretty, pretty cool.
It was all right there in the S&H catalog
(at one time the largest publication in the U.S.!)
I spent hours on end going through every page of the glitzily-produced catalog.
It started out with some modest tchotckes…
perhaps a kitchen knife or small vase.
But with each page, the dreams and promises grew.
Once you got towards the back of the book….
we’re talking stuff that could be found behind “Door Number 3”!
Hairdryers watches, baseball gloves, bongo drums, crock pots, lawn mowers,
exercise bikes, even Stereos, TVs, and (my vote)…electric TOYS!!!
Of course, for most families…
the “back-of-the book” stuff could only be fantasized about.
But here again…
is one of those instances where The Forever Kid…
was blessed with an inordinately lucky, happy childhood
My Mom and Dad owned their own business – a floor-covering store…
and when the eager salesmen came by trying to persuade my Dad
to buy another few rolls of linoleum…
rather than offering a cash discount…
they would offer special “promotions”…
bestowing a motherload of books filled with those cherished Green Stamps!
Enough to take us to the very gates of paradise….
the back pages of the catalogs.
We’re talkin’ luggage, outdoor barbeques, stereo systems and….
because of the magnificent munificence of S&H…
our very working-class family…
became one of the first families in the neighborhood to enjoy…
Wait for it…
And you thought stamp collecting was boring.
A few more tidbits about Green Stamps:
Its widespread success brought about other “pretenders to the crown”.
Notably there were Triple S Stamps.
Uh, uh! Not even green…they were blue!?
They were available only at The Grand Union Supermarket…
and were clearly a second-rate off brand!
We may have collected 10-20 bookfulls of blue and then returned to the original.
Curiously, it is suggested in pop culture annals…
that the S&H name became the inspiration for the character names
in Starsky & Hutch.
The celebrity of the brand even found its way to an episode of
The Brandy Bunch.
As the Bradys had amassed a sizeable stash of filled books…
the Brady girls pushed for a sewing machine…
while the Brady boys begged to turn those filled books into an electric boat.
They held a contest…with lots of arguing.
As always, the Solomon-like Mike & Carol Brady made all happy
with their decision …
a new TV!
(Just like The Forever Kid).
And, of course, if you’ve had the opportunity to visit…
the Museum of Modern Art in NYC…
you may have had the privilege of enjoying Andy Warhol’s 1962 masterpiece…
NOTE: Lithographs sell today for $3,200…(or about 1500 filled books).
But alas, like all good things…
the S&H Green Stamp phenomena came to an end in the ‘70’s.
For years after its demise…
I was still discovering random green stamps stuck on the bottom of tables,
in the back of my sock drawer
and in couch cushions.
Shame…had I kept up with my collecting…
I might be driving a Ferrari by now.
Did your family collect Green Stamps? Would love to hear about it.
