Thursday, December 23, 2010

August 17, 1953: Potato chips, oh boy!

Peanuts

Walking over the potato chips that she's dumped onto the floor is a nice touch.

7 comments:

  1. When's the last time you saw potato chips being sold in a container like that? The only place I see them these days is on the wall of a TGI Friday's-style restaurant.

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  2. I've never seen containers like this, but then, I'm "only" in my early 30s. I did find a few auctions of them, hunting around. Seems an incredible waste of resources, considering I don't think recycling would be big until several decades later:

    http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/8353701

    and these ones were "Scientifically Processed" (!)

    http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6588069

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  3. infi, one reason why those canisters were so popular is apparently that some companies allowed you to bring the empty canister back to the factory for refilling. I imagine that this was only useful if the factory was located close by or if the company was large and had production plants in several different areas. Still, it does seem to be a nod to "reusing," if not recycling.

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  4. Chris, ah, that's a little better. My earliest memories include bringing the old drink bottles back to the supermarket and trading them in, instead of the curbside recycling we have today, but that was the late 70s.

    I also suspect these tin containers were replaced by bags or something during the war, considering even the pennies were Zinc. Kind of surprising the tin containers would return after that, if they were indeed substituted.

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  5. Actually, I remember when you could get potato chips delivered, like milk. You left the empty tins on the porch and they brought you full ones. (Maybe this was just a Philadelphia thing, but I'm only in my 40s and I remember it.)

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  6. I'm also in my early 40s and I remember having a can like that. I think Dad used to get it refilled at the factory store. We also had a few "retired" potato chip cans that were used to store other things - the toys we used in the wading pool, for one thing.

    Those were darn good chips!

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