Show Us Your Vintage Groceries!

[LizzieMaine]

Anyone else collect Golden Era packaging? Boxes, cans, labels, wrappers, what have you -- all are fine examples of how even the most mundane products of the time displayed a sense of style you just don't see anymore.

I started accumulating this stuff many years ago, when I was associated with a local theatre group, and I frequently provided props for period plays. I still grab it up wherever I can find it, and occasionally find ways to put it to practical use: vintage egg cartons, for example, make a dandy way to store spools of thread!

(I also know what 75-year-old malted milk powder tastes like. Not bad, actually.)

 

[dhermann1]

Some of those receptacles must be no problem to keep. But some of them must have needed emptying out. Did you empty the cans and reseal them? I must say, you're braver than I am to try 75 year old malted milk. I really wonder about the rate and degree of decay of all those items.
I've always thought it was interesting to see how some of the traditional labels and trademarks have evolved over the years. For example Morton Salt put a new little girl with umbrella on their boxes some years ago, but kept the same overall design. Arm and Hammer has kept the basic trademark, but streamlined the package design as well.
Very neat to peruse those pics. TFP.

 

[jamespowers]

So you're the one that got all o my grandmother's pantry in the 1980s.
She had stuff in there from the 40s and 50s even then. Never intended to use it but just kept it. lol lol
I wish I had them now.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most of the cans are vintage labels applied to new cans (with rubber cement, so there's no permanent damage to the label), so there's no decay evident. Some of the others -- the tea, the Wesson Oil, the malt syrup, and a few others, I think -- have the original seals intact. The malt appears to have solidified in the can, but it isn't bulging or expanding or under any apparent pressure.

The malted milk powder -- well, it didn't taste any different from the current stuff, which doesn't taste all that good to me. It didn't smell rancid when I opened it, so hey, why not?

There is, however, no force on earth that could cause me to try vintage canned finnan haddie.

Jamespowers -- some of my items came from my grandmother's kitchen, where they had been on the shelf for quite a while. Never throwing anything away is in the New England blood.

The product that intrigues me the most is Sal Hepatica, which was a well known, widely-advertised laxative of the time. What they *didn't* tell you in the advertising was that one of its key ingredients was lithium citrate. No wonder it made you feel so good.

 

[Jennifer Lynn]

Neat collection Lizzie! I happened upon some displays (for sale) of vintage groceries at a local antiques market this past weekend. Mostly toiletries, medicines and baking ingredients. I've wondered how viable they would be after being sealed up for decades (the dry food stuffs, at least).

 

[jamespowers]

Most of the cans are vintage labels applied to new cans (with rubber cement, so there's no permanent damage to the label), so there's no decay evident. Some of the others -- the tea, the Wesson Oil, the malt syrup, and a few others, I think -- have the original seals intact. The malt appears to have solidified in the can, but it isn't bulging or expanding or under any apparent pressure.

The malted milk powder -- well, it didn't taste any different from the current stuff, which doesn't taste all that good to me. It didn't smell rancid when I opened it, so hey, why not?

There is, however, no force on earth that could cause me to try vintage canned finnan haddie.

Jamespowers -- some of my items came from my grandmother's kitchen, where they had been on the shelf for quite a while. Never throwing anything away is in the New England blood.

The product that intrigues me the most is Sal Hepatica, which was a well known, widely-advertised laxative of the time. What they *didn't* tell you in the advertising was that one of its key ingredients was lithium citrate. No wonder it made you feel so good.

It wasn't only a new England thing. It was likely a "lived through the depression" thing. Never throw anything away that you might want tomorrow. That generation saved everything. lol Wait, I shouldn't laugh---so do I! :eusa_doh:

 

[Silver Dollar]

It wasn't only a new England thing. It was likely a "lived through the depression" thing. Never throw anything away that you might want tomorrow. That generation saved everything. lol Wait, I shouldn't laugh---so do I! :eusa_doh:

I think that's exactly right. My grandfather came over from Poland in 1913 with nothing but the clothes he wearing on the boat. He had to start a new life including learning a new language and supporting a wife. On top of that, he went through the Depression trying to feed a family of 5 and survived it. He could pinch a penny so hard, it became copper foil.

He never threw anything away unless it was trash or totally destroyed and unfixable. When he wore the cuffs out on a shirt, he removed the cuffs and then reversed them. When he wore out the shirt collar, he reversed it and continued to wear it. When the reversed cuffs wore out again, he turned the shirt into a short sleeve shirt. When the collar wore out again, the shirt became a pajama top. As long as the material was pretty much intact, that pajama top would be used----forever. We used to buy him new shirts for his birthday. When he passed away, we found a good number of those shirts still in his closet, some 5 - 10 Years old !!! We had no idea.

 

[Foofoogal]

Well, at this point some of those vintage groceries are worth a pretty penny. Many people collect this type of vintage and they look in really great condition.
Even the labels are collected. :eusa_clap

 

[Silver Dollar]

I should have added that I have a WWII vintage pack of Lucky Strikes in the green package. It still has the original seal on it. It even came with a leather cigarette case with the Army Air Corp wing and prop tooled into it.

 

[jamespowers]

We used to buy him new shirts for his birthday. When he passed away, we found a good number of those shirts still in his closet, some 5 - 10 Years old !!! We had no idea.

We found a bunch of stuff like that when my grandfather died as well. They could have lived to 110 and still have stuff left over.

 

[Silver Dollar]

We found a bunch of stuff like that when my grandfather died as well. They could have lived to 110 and still have stuff left over.

Absolutely !!lol

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Love your collection! I have a ton of those Blue Ribbon Malt Extract Cans. I am a big time Pabst Collector, and Premier Malt Products was once a Premier-Pabst Corp product, a result of prohibition.

Also, it's kind of Ironic, the old Columbus Canning Plant, which canned Stokley's, is now Wisconsin's largest antique mall!


Again, love your kitchen goods!

 

[kampkatz]

Ah, for those days when you actually got a pound of coffee in the can.
Now it is down to 11 ounces.

 

[jamespowers]

Ah, for those days when you actually got a pound of coffee in the can.
Now it is down to 11 ounces.

But the price never changes.

 

[BoPeep]

Great collection, Lizzie. Sadly mine are mostly reproductions. But if I start saving all my empties from this day forward, my children would have a nice grouping to display.

 

[FountainPenGirl]

Great stuff. I also have an assortment of containers on display on top of my kitchen cuboards. Not as diverse of a collection though or as much. I do have a couple of potato chip cans which I still use to keep the potato chips in. The best air tight container I've found. The chips have never gotten stale yet
I just finished the last jar of malted milk powder I had. I'm not sure how old it was but the jar was still glass. I think it was at least 10 years old. The funny thing is I bought a new container of it ( I love chocolate malts ) and put the contents in the glass jar and threw out the new plastic one.
You all mentioned not throwing things out. I remember about 35 years ago I was at my Grandma's and she was running out of canning jars so she decided to open and throw out some things that hadn't been eaten so she could use the jars. We were going through the seller and found a few jars marked '52 and the like. We emptied those. The thing is the stuff still seemed fine although we didn't try it.
Being a Grandma now myself I'm saving a lot of interesting stuff. Grandson is coming to stay for a week or so and am looking forward to it. I've started sending things home with him when he visits. He seems to have caught the old stuff bug.

 

[BoPeep]

Being a Grandma now myself I'm saving a lot of interesting stuff. Grandson is coming to stay for a week or so and am looking forward to it. I've started sending things home with him when he visits. He seems to have caught the old stuff bug.

lol My mother does this with my children too! My daughter's playhouse is stocked with groceries courtesy of my mom. Pretty gift bags, boxes, old ribbons, buttons, empty spools, shells, wishbone from last night's chicken . . . mom has a grab bag ready for almost every visit. My kids love it! They don't need the latest and greatest, but are learning to treasure the little things.

 

[Mid-fogey]

I'm wondering...

...what those products would have looked like new. It seems like some of the colors have faded with time, but it's hard to tell if you didn't know what they looked like in the first place.

How do you know?

 

[Wire9Vintage]

Oh, I do love all that stuff. I often stop into a nearby antique mall just to go touch all the old cans and boxes and such.

Aside from the nostalgia factor, the things were just so well made, weren't they? Boxes were sturdy, and all that glass and heavy tin and such. No wonder stuff kept so well, on the one had, and everyone kept packaging for other uses. Can't do that anymore! Plastic melts and warps when you wash it good (never mind the chemicals in it), and boxes are too flimsy.

I wish we could get better packaging, but, of course, folks today don't know not to just toss it all out when they've emptied it, and we'd have a problem. My kids friends think I'm the crazy mom who never throws anything away... I can't part with a good glass jar with a good lid. Just takes a bit of imagination to put that little gem to great use! I, too, save the precious last of the glass jars when they convert packaging to plastic and refill and recycle the plastic.

I LOVE seeing your collections Lizzie. You're brilliant!

 

[Jay]

I remember the first time I stumbled onto this site http://www.packagemuseum.com/, I checked the basement and found out the old cans my Dad uses to store nuts and bolts and things were a lot older than I thought.