From the 1970s through the 1990s, it seemed like you could
find your favorite baseball stars on food product packaging everywhere you looked: supermarkets, corner stores, restaurants, and beyond. This past year, in an effort to capture a little more nostalgia, I set a
goal to expand my own collection of these "food-issue" cards. In
this series I'll show the specific examples I've acquired, and share a
little bit of history about the food or beverage sponsor as well.
Summer, 1984. The MLB All-Star Game is coming up next week. You've been playing baseball with all your buddies just about every glorious, free morning since school let out. And on any day of the week, you can ride your bike down to the 7-Eleven, stroll right in, and use some of your lawn-mowing money to get yourself a nice, cool Slurpee.
Life is good.
So in you go, straight for the Slurpee machine. You know the flavors: Coca-Cola, Cherry, Grape, Fanta.
Today
feels like a cherry day. And it's going to be extra good, because you
know you'll be getting a bonus. A special baseball collector's coin will
be adhered to the bottom of each Slurpee cup!
At
some 7-Eleven locations, they just give you the first Slurpee cup on
the stack, so whichever player coin you get is the one you're stuck
with. But at this location, you have an "in". The employee who's usually
behind the counter in the afternoon is a big baseball fan, and if
you're a good kid, he'll let you rummage through the cups to find a coin
you really want.
Thankfully,
he's behind the counter today, and the store is pretty empty, so you
get carte blanche. After about a dozen cups, you find your guy.
It's the Wizard of Oz!
You hand the cup over to the 7-Eleven guy, and he promptly fills it up with icy, slushy, cherry goodness and hands it back. You walk outside into the warm summer air, take a few sips, peel the coin off the bottom of the cup. and flip it over.
"4 Consecutive Gold Glove Awards"
That's the ticket. You just love the way he plays shortstop—his speed, his nimbleness, his acrobatics. And he just seems like a fun baseball player. You've already found his base card and all-star card in the Topps set this summer, and you can't wait to add this coin to your collection.
You hop back on your bike, and on the short ride home you hatch an idea.
Last week, mom brought a box of Post cereal home from the supermarket, and it had a pretty cool license plate prize inside. You've been meaning to attach it to the back of your bike. When you get home, you open the top drawer of your dresser (otherwise known as your collection drawer) and take it out.
Oh yeah. This summer is going to be rad.
Now let's give credit where credit is due.
7-Eleven began in 1927 as the Southland Ice Company. Eventually Southland became a chain, and the company added more goods and services to each location. These "convenience stores" were a hit, and by 1946, the name was changed to 7-Eleven. This helped indicate to customers that the store hours were 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Franchising began in 1961, and soon after the company would introduce the world to names like "Slurpee" and "Big Gulp".
By the 1980s, some 7-Eleven locations had arcades. And some even rented videos! Do and of you 1980s kids remember that?
As for these days, 7-Eleven is a global brand with about 85,000 locations in 20 different countries, including Thailand, South Korea, Denmark, Norway, and Australia.
If only they'd bring back the baseball coins.
Some of the food-issue cards I've featured in this Smorgasbord series to this point have been fairly obscure, but I know a bunch of you must have some of these 7-Eleven coins in your collections.
So here are a few questions:
(1) Which coins do you have?
(2) Were you big on Slurpees and Slush Puppies back then? If so, what was your favorite flavor?
(3) Did you have any of those Post cereal license plates? Did you hang them under your bike seat?
Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!
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