# Souvenirs of yesteryear (1950s-1960s) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 28, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550 "2025-08-28T13:55:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2025, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/61 "2025-08-30T11:35:37Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > I’m surprised you have difficulty finding them, as it seems they have been growing in popularity. I even found some with the name of my home town. I tried to find some souvenir tea towels in Scandinavia last year (e.g. Oslo and Stockholm), but I only ever saw one or two tea towels for sale and they didn’t really have a souvenir vibe to them; they were just relatively expensive tea towels rather than cheap kitschy souvenirs. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2025, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/62 "2025-08-31T13:29:07Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > My M.O. on road trips is taking along a clear plastic 15 quart storage container and fill it up with ephemera as I go along. I adorn the outside with souvenir stickers resulting in a uniquely-stickered bin for each trip. Nice. That’s quite the adorned collection! ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2025, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/63 "2025-08-31T13:35:29Z")
A friend of mine collects squished pennies. I see the machines pretty often in DC. Her husband has an extensive collection of snowdomes (or, as Cecil says they are called, shake-em-ups). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/64 "2025-08-31T16:08:53Z")
> [@ricepad](#): > > I’m pretty sure the original Howard Johnson’s was in Rock Ridge. ?? According to Anthony Sammarco’s History of Howard Johnsons and also the Wikipedia page, the first Howard Johnsons was in Quincy, Massachusetts. In fact, all the early Howard Johnson restaurants were in Massachusetts. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2025, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/65 "2025-08-31T16:11:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > ?? “Blazing Saddles” reference. Pretty much everyone in the town of Rock Ridge had the last name Johnson, including Howard (played by John Hillerman), who owned an ice cream parlor. > **[https://i.redd.it/3sqkvupd4g061.png](https://i.redd.it/3sqkvupd4g061.png)** ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/66 "2025-08-31T19:59:05Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > A friend of mine collects squished pennies. As I strive toward minimum clutter, I appreciate “condensed collections”: souvenirs that are tiny and unobtrusive. Our dozens of smooshed pennies live in a small (3x4x4") box. Try that with forty snow globes! I have friends who bought something because they had a couple already, and soon they’ve got an out-of-control collection of… racist coffeepots (think “ceramic Aunt Jemimas”), or fresnel lenses (no kidding, that guy never foresaw that more then a few fifty-pound lenses might be problematic? Oh, and he’s had felt-lined walnut cases made for many of his “best” ones). ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/67 "2025-09-01T06:16:14Z")
This thread is killing me! I’m haunted by Poor Souvenir Choices as A Child. From my earliest memories… Went to a Zoo, bought a small Knight in Armour for my brother Went to Lincolnland, or whatever it was called. Always came home with the little crappy tin trains. Had half a dozen I reckon. Toured The Queen Mary. Decided an Airfix 1:100 scale Russian Yak fighter was an appropriate keepsake. Now I just settle on Pins or stickers. I’ve got wooden plaques with my AMA pins and I can keep adding to them. But, when I was in Branson, I couldn’t resist… Oh, nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/68 "2025-09-01T15:48:37Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I don’t know about the US, but when I was a kid in the 70s in Germany, every souvenir shop had snow globes themed around the attraction you visited, and also additional generally themed ones. Haven’t seen them for decades. Not Germany, but Austria. My husband got one in a Salzburg souvenir shop about 5 or 6 years ago. The base said Salzburg on it and inside was a little winter scene. The ‘snow’ was glitter. Unfortunately, the glue holding it together deteriorated and the liquid inside drained out. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/69 "2025-09-01T15:54:07Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Souvenir spoons (and thimbles) go way back. Don’t forget the plates! My grandmother used to have some of these. [![](https://i0.wp.com/farawayplaces.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/souvenir-state-plates.jpg) ](https://i0.wp.com/farawayplaces.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/souvenir-state-plates.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/70 "2025-09-01T21:14:14Z")
So many dining rooms had “Souvenir Hutches” full of those plates (and some grandmothers had worked their way up to all forty-eight)(that’s how old they were). Even as a kid, I thought those hutches were tacky, and a waste of space. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/71 "2025-09-02T01:28:38Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > A friend of mine collects squished pennies. I see the machines pretty often in DC. [Not much longer.](https://slate.com/life/2025/08/pennies-trump-pressed-collector.html) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/72 "2025-09-02T04:41:38Z")
Adventureland, outside Des Moines, did something similar. This was shortly after they opened in the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/73 "2025-09-03T12:37:18Z")
My dad was always anti-souvenir. Unless the item had some use, like a t-shirt or a hat, it was a waste of money. “But what about having a reminder of the vacation, dad?” “That’s what the camera is for.” It was amazing that he let me buy a comic book or two. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/74 "2025-09-03T17:00:58Z")
I was born in '78 and growing up everyone had vacation ash trays and ironic snow globes from some tropical location in their house. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/75 "2025-09-03T17:14:09Z")
“ironic” or “iconic”? Or both? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/76 "2025-09-03T17:23:06Z")
Both I guess, but ironic because the melted snow man on a Honolulu Beach is soooo hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550/77 "2025-09-03T19:19:15Z")
> [@digs](#): > > As I strive toward minimum clutter, I appreciate “condensed collections”: souvenirs that are tiny and unobtrusive. Our dozens of smooshed pennies live in a small (3x4x4") box. Try that with forty snow globes! My younger daughter collects them, and they sell books where you can insert them. We just bought her one at the Boeing Factory Tour. I’m pretty sure we got one for her in Germany. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/souvenirs-of-yesteryear-1950s-1960s/1022550.md?page=3)