A posting on social media recently took me back to my childhood when, as a family, we collected and redeemed S&H Green Stamps.

For those who don’t know about green stamps, the Sperry & Hutchinson Company (S&H) started by Thomas Sperry and Shelley Hutchinson in 1896, created stamps to use for its loyalty program and were named S&H Green Stamps.

Green stamps were popular from the 1930s through the 1980s.

With each purchase at a grocery store, gas station and other stores, each customer would receive green stamps based on the value of their purchase. Stamps were issued in values of 1, 10 and 50 points.

Customers would lick the stamps or wet a sponge and fill the pages of S&H redemption books.

Each book contained 24 pages and each page contained 50 points so each book contained 1,200 points.

Books could be redeemed at either a local redemption center or in a 178-page mail order catalog.

As a child, I have vivid memories of licking the stamps and placing them in the books. We would look through the catalogs and save enough books to redeem for something we needed in the house.

What I could not remember is what we got with those green stamps.

My mother remembers redeeming the stamps for milk glass and bowls. She said she would never have purchased the milk glass without the stamps because that was a luxury.

I took to social media to ask friends and readers if they remembered S&H Green Stamps and it was fun reading the responses.

Many redeemed stamps for pots, pans, sheets, lamps, small appliances, a Sunbeam heating pad, a Sunbeam hair dryer (the one with the cap attached to the hose), Corning casserole dishes, glassware, a high chair and more.

A quick glance at an old catalog online reminds me of an old Sears catalog. You really could redeem stamps for anything. An Admiral 17-inch solid state color television could be yours for 150 books, a Seiko self-winding men’s watch for 21 books and a Rubbermaid bathtub appliqué set (adhesive backed for safer footing) for one book!

I grew up in Delaware County where the S&H redemption store was located in Drexel Hill.

Around here, my social media gurus said there was a redemption store on Easton Avenue in Bethlehem Township, Leh’s Department Store on Hamilton Street in Allentown and one on the top floor of Zollingers where a friend had her first part time job back in 1972. Another remembers a catalog center in the Thrift Drugs in the Mountainville Shopping Center in Allentown.

Retired teacher Kathy DeBona remembers S&H green stamps well and said, “It was a great way for a child to learn patience, collecting stamps over time and gluing them into the books to save up for a special reward.”

I agree. It was very exciting to go to the redemption center with your filled, crinkly books.

As a child, I also remember collecting proofs of purchase from cereal boxes to get my mother a set of towels. I ate a lot of cereal. I was devastated to learn I had to ask my mother to write a check for shipping and handling for the towels which would ruin her surprise but I told her it was a surprise and we got the towels. Another exciting memory.

There are loyalty programs out there - collecting points at the grocery store for discounted gas and offers from department stores for cash toward additional purchases.

There isn’t anything like S&H Green Stamps now which provides the many invaluable lessons we learned as children.

Thanks everyone for walking down memory lane with me.

Debbie Galbraith

Editor

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press