S&H Green Stamps were trading stamps
popular in the United States from the 1930s until the late 1980s. They were
distributed as part of a rewards program operated
by the Sperry & Hutchinson
company. During the 1960s, the rewards catalog printed by the company was the
largest publication in the United States and the company issued three
times as many stamps as the U.S. Postal Service. Customers received stamps at the checkout
counters of supermarkets, department stores, and gasoline stations that could be redeemed for products in the
catalog.
Scratching
at the back of my mind
all those
green stamps Aunt Florence saved,
a hundred
books enough for something good
who had so
little.
They were
stolen, an inside job,
Her oldest
daughter, is what she thought.
So
hurt. The only time I saw her anything
but angry.
Green stamps
I saved as a teenage bride
In Norman,
Oklahoma.
Enough for
an attaché case for my husband
to take to
work who was having nooners with a long, tall
woman who lived
nearby.
Green stamp
rewards did not rekindle passion,
as I had
hoped.
Green stamps
I took that first time
shopping
with my new love
He gave them
back.
“No green
stamps,” he said,
“Never take
green stamps.”
After his
mother died inside a garage,
The motor
running,
He found a
box of green stamp books,
Hundreds,
each stamp licked and put in place,
Enough for
something really, really good,
Her life
work, he said.
Never get
green stamps,
You can’t
depend on green stamps.
1 comment:
I think about S&H Green Stamps a few times a year when I tell the story of my aunt accusing me of stealing them. I used to fill her books, when I was about 9 y/o. So many stamps it took to get a trade-in. I was happy doing it until one day I was shocked by her accusation and lost interest. Wondering if there was a prevailing fear of family members stealing green stamps. Thanks for the pic of the book and your post, Arupa.
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