I’m from the northeast and when I was a teenager I loved their fried clams.
Then you missed the short-lived existence of HoJo cola. It was the company’s own brand (although they tried to sell it in supermarkets, as well.) It didn’t taste quite like Coke, nor Pepsi. It was the very essence of a generic cola taste. Customers were not pleased, and the restaurants went back to Coca Cola as their standard fountain soda.
Way long ago, probably in the 50s, Sea Lion Caves on the Oregon Coast had someone who went around the parking lot attaching a souvenir thin cardboard sign with the name of the place to your bumper with pieces of wire. I thought it was really cool and had it on my bedroom wall for years.
I don’t know the last time I saw a “My parents went to (X) and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” t-shirt.
I’ve always wanted one like would be in a TV sitcom kid’s room, the ones that just say “STATE” in a totally safe, generic “we’ll never tell what state the Cleavers live in” way.
They used to have the concession rights to the Illinois Tollway Oases. The ones that straddle the highway, and you could sit and look out the window at the traffic running under you. I loved going there, when I could get to Chicago.
The Tommy Bartlett Sea Sky and Stage show in Wisconsin Dells had people that stuck a damn bumper sticker to every car in the parking lot, whether you wanted one or not. You saw them everywhere.
Hey – maybe the mystery of Roman dodecahedrons is solved if they turn out to be Ancient Roman Military Souvenirs
When I was a kid vacationing in Florida we saw guys at Parrot Jungle and elsewhere attaching “pressure sensitive” (adhesive-backed) bumper stickers to cars in the parking lot, whether they wanted it or not.
Those adhesive bumper stickers were a lot harder to get off than the ones wired onto your bumper. Free advertising for the attractions.
In the Bay Area Mystery Spot bumper stickers used to be everywhere.
In the Wisconsin Dells (a tourist area in central Wisconsin, popular among Chicagoans), one of the main attractions for many years was the Tommy Bartlett Show, which featured waterskiing, motoboats, etc. There, too, everyone who parked in their lot to attend the show got a “souvenir bumper sticker” (i.e., free advertising for the show) stuck to their bumpers during the show, whether they wanted one or not.
I seem to recall that, at some point, due to complaints, they instituted a policy that, if you did not want a bumper sticker, you were to fold down the visors in your car’s front seat – but it was an “opt-out,” rather than an “opt-in,” policy.
I’ve been to lots of tourist places as a youth, and saw much of what5 everything listed here. Some others are coasters or plastic drink stirrers with the resort or attraction featured. (not my drinks, but my parent’s). Or they would bring home the stir sticks for us kids to see what we missed.
Generic STATE sweatshirts make a regular appearance on lots of drug commercials. So stoopid.
I had a few from ballgames and amusement parks. The first thing you did was discard (or maybe repurpose) the stick so you could tack it to a wall. That cheap felt had a half-life of about a week.
I think I still have my mold-a-rama Unisphere from the World’s Fair
Here’s a site filled ith Mold-a-rama stuff
I can’t believe they had a Moby Dick mold for Pleasure Island (located not far from my house), or a Clock of All Nations from Midtown Plaza in Rochester, NY
I have a pennant from the University of Wisconsin Badgers’ appearance at the Rose Bowl in 1960; my father was a recent Wisconsin grad at that point, and was living in Los Angeles, so he went to the game, and bought the pennant there. He gave it to me when I was a kid, and it was on the wall of my bedroom for many years, then wound up on the walls of my various offices.
I’m pretty sure the original Howard Johnson’s was in Rock Ridge.
Ricepad Johnson is right!
Rev’rend!
[golf clap]
MUCH more tasteful than filling up the bumper (and then the back window) of your Jeep/SUV/minivan. I almost rear-ended a Winnebago trying to read a “Visit Scintillating Snyder Swamp*” decal…
BTW, I’m looking at used cars, and one conundrum is “Do I spend days trying to get all those stickers off, or just let people think I’ve been to every state park and county fair west of the Big Sioux River?”
(And that I’m a Libertarian Conspiracy Pothead that loads up on stickers at every ‘banjo band’ festival…)
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*Beverly Hillbillies reference.
Mrs. Drysdale, reading one of the Clampetts’ souvenir embroidered pillows:
“Oh, Snyder Swamp… is that a popular vacation spot back home?”
Granny: “Yes, indeedy, tons o’ people go there!”
Mrs. Drysdale: “Ohhh, do they like it?”
Granny: “Don’t know, they never come back!”
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.
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 just bought 2 in Ketchikan last week. Maybe they are more popular in the PNW and Alaska?
Dagnabbit. I didn’t look at tea towels when I was in the Made in Washington store. Want. Elephant Car Wash tea towel.