I Want to Lick the Stamps!

A conversation over lunch at work yesterday took an odd turn as we began reminiscing about S&H Green Stamps, which apparently has remade itself into greenpoints. Not everyone remembered them, but I do. The grocery store cashier at Publix ("Where shopping is a pleasure!") would put the amount of purchase on this dispenser (it looked like a bunch of phone dials, with the cents wheel nestled inside the dollar wheel) next to the cash register. Out they'd slide and they'd rip them off, only sometimes you'd get a torn stamp, because they didn't dispense smoothly. My mom would stick them in a can and then once in a while put them in a book (which you got for free from the supermarket). Melissa and I enjoyed doing that, because it was fun to lick the stamps, and we didn't understand why mom used a sponge. Of course, they often didn't stick well, and you had to wait until they dried before turning the page. The filled pages would become stiff from the glue (one of the women in my office who had never seen them asked, "Were they self-adhesive?" Made me feel old). My mother gave me my own book and I got to keep all the $1 stamps. The best was going to the S&H Redemption Center and picking out all the cool things you could get with your books of stamps. I remember I got a nail kit with a pretty light blue case, which is odd because I turned out to be so not-a-nail person (the only time in the past year my nails have been painted was for my wedding). Cecil Adams goes into greater green stamp detail in his column.