Sundays only

 

 

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my appreciation for Saturdays gone by and in particular Saturday card bloggers -- those bloggers who post only on Saturdays.

Today, I'm addressing Sundays and Sunday-only card bloggers.

For me, Sundays are my Saturdays. It's a recuperation day from the week that's passed. I usually don't do a lot that day unless the Monday-thru-Fridayers insist on doing something. It's mostly a day for baseball watching (or football watching) and music listening. I usually blog that day, too.

As a youngster, Sundays were for church and shopping, of course. That was the day when a trip to the ice cream shop was most likely. It was a day for cookouts and fun food and riding bikes and walking to the drug store to find cards.

As I got older, I worked in a department store and Sundays were a day the sales started -- and the day most likely for a customer to insist something was on sale that wasn't on sale -- and the first time I experienced what it was like to work a full day.

Today, Sundays at work are mostly low-key. Sundays and Mondays. Which explains why I usually have them off. But for some, Sundays are the day for blogging.

I recently received an envelope from Sunday-only blogger Nine Pockets. He's a hockey fan, photoshop expert and oddball fancier. So it follows that Gregory sent me this card:

OK, it's actually a disc. I'm too caught up in its greatness to get into semantics.

 

I'm a bit accustomed to Hershiser's fantastic oddball cards, which I'll get to in a second. But what immediately hit me was the complete butchering of the word "wholesome," which was a very prevalent advertising tactic in the first half of the 20th century. Looking back now it seems bizarre -- how are we ever going to teach kids how to read and spell? -- but it was a way to catch eyeballs, I guess.

 

Holsum is a brand of bread that's been around for like a hundred years. It's apparently still around and Holsum Bakeries puts out several differently named breads and such. I've never seen it sold where I am, which makes the name even more odd and this Hershiser disc card all the more fascinating.

 

It's gotten me to pull out my five favorite food-issue Hershiser oddballs from my collection.

 

Hershiser has several store-brand oddballs, not necessarily restricted to food, but I'm keeping the list to food issues (sorry, Revco Hershiser) because that's what I associated Sundays with as a kid: maybe we were going to have pizza for dinner!!

 

Let's go:

 

5. 1989 Cap'n Crunch

Yup, Sunday mornings were for Cap'n Crunch. Although sugary breakfast cereal was more of a Saturday morning thing for me as a kid. Cap'n Crunch was a personal favorite. If I were to go on a junk-cereal binge, I would be buying all of the different Cap'n Crunch flavors that are available today.

 

 

4. 1990 Holsum disc

The very Holsum Hershiser -- I'm sure his white-bread vibe was a key selling point for being included in the set -- manages to make only the four spot, even as the new kid on the food-issue block. That doesn't mean it's not great. This card has a background, too, which none of the other cards to follow do.

 

3. 1989 King-B disc

The other 1989 food-issue disc of Hershiser in my collection. King-B gets the nod over Holsum because it says "quality meat snacks" right there in all-caps. It's also the second annual Collectors' Edition. Come on, Holsum, you need to learn to pimp-out your sets!

This disc photo is very similar -- yet not the same -- as another Hershiser oddball from 1989:

The main difference is the denim cap that Orel is wearing in the J.J. Nissen card, which was also a bread company. Hershiser also appears a bit happier on the disc card because quality meat snacks!

 

 

2. 1993 Kraft Pop-Ups

Excluding maybe the early '60s, the golden age for food-issue oddballs is 1985-90. Look it up. They were everywhere.

They died off in the early '90s as cards became more of "an investment" -- who had time for oddballs when there was money to make? -- but there was a resurgence in 1993. The best of those are the Kraft Singles Pop-Ups.

I like the way these look, the depiction of action. There's even another photo on the back. But I am NOT standing up this Hershiser card. Ever. 

1. 1990 Wonder Bread

The king of white bread, Wonder, puts Holsum in its place with my all-time favorite food-issue card of Hershiser. This is the template for what I want a food-issue card to be even if I probably haven't eaten a slice of Wonder Bread since 1990.

The food companies were a little slow to come around to Hershiser during the late '80s. He was a force beginning in 1985 but didn't start showing up in food sets until 1988, the year of his World Series MVP season.

There are still a few food-issue Hershisers that I need, including another Holsum disc from 1989. I probably should make adding them a Sunday activity.

Gregory sent a few other cards, including this gold parallel that I didn't have yet:

Gold! Probably one of the reasons why food issues disappeared in the early '90s. Our attention was diverted.