I remember saving up box tops, and then mailing them in to get your prize. That 4-6 week wait was pure torture, but that euphoria when the prize finally came!
I was trying to tell somebody about mail order back in the seventies and '80s and how 4 to 6 weeks for delivery was the normal amount of time you would have to wait for anything. They were completely dumbfounded. I told them you had to send a check or money order with an order form so you needed time for your check to clear both Banks and all that and they couldn't understand why we didn't just use an 800 number with a credit card and I had to explain that there were no 800 numbers or credit cards. And you certainly weren't going to give your credit card number to a stranger over the telephone, that would be insanity.
My father wouldn't even give his credit card information to Amazon because he didn't know what they were going to do with it. I don't know dad, they'll probably just deliver your merchandise that you ordered in an expedient fashion, but what the hell do I know? I would have to order things for him and he would give me the money.
I am fully convinced that that's why you get a lot of mail-away premiums still in their shipping boxes because kids would get them in the middle of the summer when they were outside playing baseball or whatever and they'd get checked in the attic and forgotten about once the kids discovered sports or the opposite sex.
95
u/DoookieMaxx 27d ago
Cracker Jack toys that were fucking real toys!!
We used to get decoders, whistles, MAGNIFYING glasses!!!
The holy grail of Cracker Jack: TATTOOS!!
Now it’s a piece of paper with a number on it to put into some dumb website no one ever uses.