Reminiscing Upshur County

Recently, I was watching reruns of Leave It To Beaver, when an episode popped up that spawned a myriad of memories from over the years.

Wally and Beaver had seen an advertisement in a magazine that claimed they could earn enough money to get their very own movie projector. All they had to do was sell some of the companies “lovely” perfume, “Flower of the Orient” door-to-door. Father, Ward, tossed the magazine in the trash, telling the boys that the advertisement was misleading. However, Beaver fished the magazine out of the trash and the boys sent off for a supply of the perfume to sell. Ward was not always right in the series, but in this instance, he was.

Selling the perfume turned out to be much harder that the boys thought it would be, especially when everyone agreed that it smelled more like an old catcher’s mitt than flowers.

They finally got rid of enough of the perfume to earn their movie projector. Alas, when it arrived, it was a cheap plastic toy, a complete waste of their time and effort.

I can remember several times over the years that I, or someone in my family wound up in a similar situation, although in our case, it also might involve a fund raiser of some sort for school.

One such fundraiser involved selling Life Saver Books, which used to be very popular. There were several prizes available, depending on how many books one sold.

The prize I coveted was a camera. I thought it would be just wonderful to be able to make my own pictures of anything I wanted. So, I worked diligently, and sold enough Life Savers to earn the camera.

When it arrived, like Beaver and Wally’s movie projector, it was a flimsy plastic thing with a roll of the company’s film. Although it didn’t look like much, I loaded up the camera and took a number of pictures. The first big disappointment was that the film used was specific to that company and had to be mailed to them for processing, at considerable cost. Additional film had to be purchased from them. Mother let me send the film in for processing, and in due time, the prints arrived. Oh, the shock, when we saw the pictures. They were about the size of a postage stamp, so small that you could barely tell what or who was in the picture. The let down was huge; the camera was relegated to the toy box until it was eventually tossed in the trash.

You would think we’d learn that things weren’t always what they were purported to be, but when another fund raiser made its way home, offering a wonderful set of ball point pens with colored ink as a prize, I dove right in, selling whatever the product was to earn a set of those wonderful pens. Ball point pens were a fairly new product, and I was not alone in wanting the colored ones; my classmates and I could just imagine the hours of fun drawing with them.

Unfortunately, when the pens arrived, they didn’t meet expectations. Some of the pens never wrote at all, and the ones that did only lasted a short while before the ink was gone. Once again, disappointment reigned as the much anticipated color pens didn’t live up to their promise.

Another fund raiser I knew of, came from my late husband, Royce. I don’t remember what the prize was, but his class was to sell magazine subscriptions. This should have been safe enough, as there were numerous titles offered, so much effort was expended going door-to-door, selling those subscriptions. The funds were dually sent in, but weeks, then months, went by and no one ever received a single magazine. As you can imagine, there were some unhappy buyers and sellers in this instance.

Even adults were occasionally tempted by an offer that didn’t quite live up to the hype. Point in case, an advertisement in a magazine promising that the “color converter” they were selling would make your black and white television into color. Now, you’d think that anyone would know this was impossible, but I guess we were all a little naïve back then. So, mother filled out the order blank, tucked it in an envelope with payment, and sent it on its way. In due time, a tube containing the anticipated item arrived in the mail. Inside the tube was a rolled up sheet of a cellophane type product that was tinted green across the bottom, orange/red in the center, and blue at the top. This sheet was taped to the television and was supposed to simulate a full color picture. As you can imagine, this was a complete and utter failure, leaving us watching black and white TV for many more years until true color sets were more widely available and affordable.

Over the years, my own children suffered the agonies of the fundraiser. The one that was the most work was what we still refer to as the “Red Box” fundraiser. Instead of a catalog, students were sent home with a red, cardboard suitcase, filled with samples of the items that could be ordered. This box was the size of an average suitcase, and wasn’t exactly light. I’m sure the bus drivers were less than thrilled at the sight of all those cardboard suitcases coming on board. In a case of history repeating itself, the big prize was a 35 mm camera. Living in a rural area meant that most of the sales calls had to be assisted by a parent. We hit up relatives, neighbors, and church friends, many of whom had already been approached by another young seller. By the end of the fundraiser, the box was pretty tattered. We had to be careful to keep up with all the sales samples, as they became inventory when the orders arrived. All the items had to be sorted and delivered to the buyer. If all went according to plan, the suitcase was empty at the end of the process and everyone had what they ordered. That part, at least, did turn out right even if the prize did not. Some time after the orders were processed, the prizes arrived. The 35 mm camera was another cheap plastic box with fixed aperture and a shutter button. It did take standard film, but the pictures came out all fuzzy and out of focus. Another time a hard working student was cheated. The student was allowed to keep the red box. It turned out to be worth more than the camera. My daughter stored paperback books in hers as it would slide under her bed. It served that purpose for many years before completely falling apart.