Wit the passing of Summer 2022, I find myself in a nostalgic mood, remembering vacations we took when I was a kid, and of the souvenirs picked up along the way. Many of these have generally disappeared, but you can still find some of them if you look.
Felt pennants of places you visited, frequently printed in fluorescent day-glo colors
I don’t recall seeing spoons at the souvenir places when I was a kid, but they’ve been around a long time. I have a souvenir spoon from Wonderland in Revere MA (1906-1910)
Here’s a specialized one – plastic “Zoo Keys” in the shape of an elephant, where the trunk was the key. You inserted them into special boxes outside the animal enclosure and it gave a recorded spiel about it. There was even a TV commercial about it. I got two different keys from the Philadelphia Zoo and, I think, the Bronx zoo. They have different wards, so you can’t interchange them.
The problem was that kids kept breaking off the trunks in the boxes – the plastic wasn’t very strong – and after that you couldn’t use them until someone came in and cleaned out the broken-off part.
Most of these items are familiar to me. I came here to say that as a kid, the best part of a trip was a gift shop. We take the grandkids to an old logging camp museum every year (I went there with my parents too!). It’s only about a 30-minute drive but they love going and can hardly wait to get to the gift shop. It has all of the usual stuff - beaded moccasins, rings, plates, treasure boxes, old-fashioned candy, incense, agates, geodes, road games, toys, sweat/t-shirts, etc. It has the same smell as every gift shop I’ve ever been in. Very nostalgic.
My dads particular brand of cheapness would not waste money on something like a souvenir tchotchke. He was ok with t-shirts or hats since they had a use. But not things that just sat on a shelf. And it’s probably a good thing since so much of the souvenirs I remember from redneck resort gift shops of the 70’s and 80’s was shockingly racist. I would be embarrassed for anyone to see that stuff on my wall or coffee table.
I had one from somewhere. Maybe Sea World? Or Fort Erie, PA.
How about photo viewers? I have one from Geauga Lake amusement park (which, like Sea World Ohio, was not really a family vacation but a trip to the next town over)
And re: historical documents. I bought a copy of the US Constitution from COSI in Columbus. It appeared to be printed on “period” paper but I mostly remember that it smelled weird!
Oddly enough I just bought myself a nice felt pennant, from the Joe Pera merch site. It has a picture of a tomato and Joe’s name.
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