The Codger Cabin

[Columbo]

It’s interesting to see that Zippo marketed to women. Both my parents were lifelong cigarette smokers and my mother always used matches as far as I remember. My dad on the other hand always had a Zippo. He used to let me put the new wicks and flint in. Different thoughts on smoking in the 60s and 70s, I think we were conditioned to smoke as kids.

Women have been more voracious cigarette smokers over the decades than men. And it's reflected in the ad copy. We men have been lucky in that we primarily take it up for relaxation, and that it is provided in so many forms to us. Not necessarily so for the ladies. Many ladies are not going to puff on pipes or cigars, or stuff in the chew. All they have that has been considered socially 'acceptable' are cigarettes.

Besides the greater cultural variety of tobacco forms that have catered to the men that women tend to eschew, many women have smoked over the years as a form of weight control.

And that is a very big reason for them. Their figures.

It's perhaps the reason that for many decades, the number one cause of death for women was from heart disease. So many of them smoked cigarettes (and still smoke today). But until women's lib drove them out into the workplace, most did it discreetly at home or socially.

And for a lot of years in recent years, to prove it, all you had to do was be at any convenience store around 5:30 p.m. on a weekday. They would run you over to get their next packs! With the war on tobacco, that is slowly changing. But I still see the after work stampede at the nearby Wawa many days.

So lighters, especially table lighters, were fairly popular with the ladies over the years. Especially if a man could have the honors!

 

[Columbo]

From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):

 

[Columbo]

From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):

 

[ctr]

It’s funny you mention that. My childhood home went up for sale last year and now with Zillow I could see everything that had been done/remodeled. One thing that wasn’t touched was the majority of the kitchen. It had the original cabinets and the electric stove had been replaced with a newer model. I do remember boxes of Blue Tip matches always being in one cabinet.

I ask because my grandmother used matches to light the stove while my grandfather used his Zippo. Folks tend to stick with the comfortable methods for themselves.

 

[Columbo]

From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):

 

[Columbo]

From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):

 

[Columbo]

From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):

 

[Columbo]

From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):


We end the week with an 89 cent pipe at the Rexall, and some other early 1950s values ...

 

[Benzadmiral]

Rexall, 1953: Back when drugstores sold *all* kinds of consumer items, not just over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, and junk food. Some of my first comic books, plastic models, magazines, paperbacks, and even LP records came from our local chain drugstores. Not to mention some of them had soda fountains/lunch rooms with mini-jukeboxes attached at intervals along the counter.

 

[Columbo]

Old time drug stores. My favorite back in the day were the ones in the resort towns, nearest the beach, in hottest summer.

Painted white wooden doors with worn brass handles that must have been touched a million times. Sometimes, with a cup of morning coffee or juice from the nearby stand in one hand. Coming in off the weathered boards or tired concrete, and feeling that whoosh of refreshing air conditioning as you escape from the hot sun outside. Rows of fluorescent tubes overhead, increasingly competing with the sunshine as you go further.

Wood and linoleum floors under your feet, with just the slightest dusting of sand on them. The aromas of a thousand sundry things sold there, all crowned with the uniquely seaside perfume of Sea & Ski and coconut oil.

Families in flip-flops and their swimming attire all bounding about. Older ladies in flopping sun hats and already whitewashed noses shuffle around. Younger ones laden with huge bags of their children's necessities shepherd their charges. Time is precious, can't waste the Sun. Happy kids laughing, it's going to be a fun day.

Bins and shelves full of the most colorful beach toys, for building magical cities of sand, buckets and molds and all manner of shovels, rakes and tools. And those short legged aluminum-framed beach chairs, too, all webbed in so many shades of red, yellow, green and blue plastic, so mom and dad can watch the construction before the tide takes it down.

Giant beach towels, and the cooler chests to later hold them down with. Smaller umbrellas, for those who didn't want to rent a bigger one later. All kinds of balls and rings and hoops to throw and catch. A cornucopia of inflatable water-going things. You supply the air later. Kites of all kinds, paper and plastic and wood. God supplies the air for those. But don't forget the string.

Racks of Evereadys for all those tired AM transistor radios about to get a workout. A galaxy of sunglasses on leaning, squeaky, spinning wire carousels, for heads and wallets large and tiny. A fleet of newspapers, magazines and paperbacks lined up on parade, with that unmistakable paperesque scent, to later wile away the time out in the Sun.

A big floor chest of iced novelties, next to others with Coke and root beer and orange sodas, not too far from the ringing cash registers. Deeply tanned young girls, working through their college summers, keying away on them, and likely wondering about tonight's plans.

The friendliest tobacco selection, right next to all the candy and chewing gums, and the local fudges and salt water taffies to bring home for Aunt Mary or as a later remembrance of the visit. No matter that it was all packaged elsewhere, it would taste and smoke better just because of where you are.

And yes, even a little display of Super Speeds, in their little plastic houses, across from the razor blades and not too far from the Aqua Velva and lime scented aftershaves. And not too far from the Solarcaine and Noxzema, and all the tanning lotions and potions that try so hard to prevent needing them.

As you leave, the seagulls are squeaking outside, watching, circling and jostling for position to get a free breakfast here or there. The kids run out ahead, no stopping them now. Watch out for the bikes spinning by. But the cars all move a little slower, it seems.

The Sun is getting higher, and more insistent, by the minute. And if you're close enough, the rush of the waiting ocean can be just barely heard off in the distance, muddled with the sound of so many voices just racing to get there. You turn to cross towards the sand, and the Sun finally finds your arms and legs with its hot fingers. Looks like a hot one again.

A drug store by the beach in mid-summer. They were the best.

 

[gewoon ik]

It is raining cats and dogs here. You story made it stop for a tiny bit.

 

[Columbo]

From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):

 

[Columbo]

From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):

 

[Benzadmiral]

The Calvert Ad: It took me a while to spot the pipe. The seated guy in the gray trousers and cream sweater is holding one, albeit in an odd way, as if his fingers can't curve around the bowl.

Grandpa on the right is going to be in trouble, if he's doing shooters.

 

[Multum in parvo]

The Calvert Ad: It took me a while to spot the pipe. The seated guy in the gray trousers and cream sweater is holding one, albeit in an odd way, as if his fingers can't curve around the bowl.

Grandpa on the right is going to be in trouble, if he's doing shooters.

Looks like the pipe was added as an afterthought.

 

[Mojo88]

From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):




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When I think of Texaco I always think of their commercial: You can trust your car to the man who wears the star.

We always looked for Texaco and Sinclair station when we traveled on vacation. No handheld devices or personal music. We played the license plate game, I spy, twenty questions and spot that Texaco Star or Sinclair dinosaur.

 

[Columbo]

From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):

 

[Columbo]

From The Cabin Coffee Table — An occasional look back at what the old Codgers saw and smoked (with a little detour and frolic, here and there):

 

[ctr]

Rexall, 1953: Back when drugstores sold *all* kinds of consumer items, not just over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, and junk food. Some of my first comic books, plastic models, magazines, paperbacks, and even LP records came from our local chain drugstores. Not to mention some of them had soda fountains/lunch rooms with mini-jukeboxes attached at intervals along the counter.

Had many a meal at those lunch counters.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Had many a meal at those lunch counters.

One of my downtown Walgreens stores had an upstairs lunch room, with windows that looked down on the main shopping street and the cross street. That store is still there, but I have no idea what occupies that space now.

We had two Woolworth's stores within five blocks of each other. Both are gone now: one enveloped by a hotel and restaurant, the other long buried as part of the Hard Rock Hotel-to-be that collapsed in 2019.