Orange Crush was invented in 1916, when Clayton Howell partnered with chemist Neil Ward to incorporate the company of Orange Crush Company. Ward was the one to perfect the zesty, signature orange flavor in this soda!
At the time the soda was introduced, inventors were commonly given credit for soda flavors, so this actually debuted as “Ward’s Orange Crush”! By 1918 it was available as far away as Canada, and by 1919 Norman Rockwell was commissioned to paint the advertising posters for Orange Crush, which by the 1950′s would be available as far away as South America, New Zealand, Europe, and Africa!
Lemon Crush and Lime Crush were also introduced early in the company’s lifetime, 1919 and 1920 respectively. It is now available in literally dozens of flavors, worldwide!
Get yourself a cold glass bottle of Orange Crush and enjoy the summer weather!
Not everyone grew up knowing about Friendly’s Ice Cream, or Friendly Ice Cream, as it was originally called, but the Blake brothers opened Friendly Ice Cream in Springfield, MA in 1935! The name was chosen to suggest warm, neighborly service. Curtis Blake was 18, and his brother S. Prestley Blake was 20 when they opened their first store- now the chain has well over 500 restaurants! A two-scoop cone was 5 cents, and their second offering- hamburgers- were originally introduced in their second location, in West Springfield, MA. The number of stores actually peaked at close to 850 in 1988, when the chain was owned by Hershey Foods Corporation. To this date, Friendly’s continues to make it’s own hot fudge and whipped cream as well!
So keep in mind, when you take home some Friendly’s Ice Cream from the grocery store- you’re taking home history!
You’ve heard the Beach Boys singing about them… but huarache sandals have been around since before the Beach Boys were born! Originating in Latin American countries, made of woven hand-tooled leather uppers and soles, they began appearing in Mexican markets around 1936. Eventually the soles were replaced with rubber from worn tires, but the year this began is not specific. They were originally a peasant shoe, and the smaller sizes made them popular with American women. Some modern pairs have lasted their owners up to 20 years! Now THAT is a long-lived shoe! Huaraches are traditionally hand-made, so no two pairs are ever exactly alike.
Sure, we’ve all heard of Keds…. people refer to those little white oxford-type canvas sneakers as Keds regardless of whether or not they actually ARE…. simply because it’s easier to associate a brand name than call them ‘little white sneakers’. While this is important to note in product branding, it has been ingrained for four generations now, and is likely to stick.
Lets give you a little history on the little white sneaker…
This is direct from Wikipedia: ”A plimsoll shoe or simply plimsoll is a type of athletic shoe with a canvas upper and rubber sole, developed as beachwear in the 1830s by the Liverpool Rubber Company (later to become Dunlop). The shoe was originally, and often still is in parts of the UK, called a ‘sand shoe’ and acquired the nickname ‘plimsoll’ in the 1870s. This name derived, according to Nicholette Jones’ book “The Plimsoll Sensation”, because the coloured horizontal band joining the upper to the sole resembled the plimsoll line on a ship’s hull, or because, just like the Plimsoll line on a ship, if water got above the line of the rubber sole, the wearer would get wet.”
BUT WAIT… There’s more. This is where it gets interesting….
“As it was commonly used for corporal punishment in the British Commonwealth, where it was the typical gym shoe (part of the school uniform), plimsolling is also a synonym for a slippering. ” (you know… smacking someone around with a soft shoe to punish them)
“They were generally black or white with a few in brown.
In most of North America, they are known as sneakers or tennis shoes, depending on the regional dialect. In the UK these shoes were compulsory in schools’ physical education lessons and today are still generally known as Plimsolls or pumps. Regional terms are common for these. In Northern Ireland and central Scotland they are usually known as gutties; “sannies” (from ‘sand shoe’) is also used in Scotland. In parts of Southern England and Wales they are known as “daps” or “dappers”. There is a widespread belief that “daps” is taken from a factory sign – “Dunlop Athletic Plimsoles” which was called “the DAP factory”. However, this seems unlikely as the first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary of “dap” for a rubber soled shoe is a March 1924 use in the Western Daily Press newspaper; Dunlop did not acquire the Liverpool Rubber Company (as part of the merger with the Macintosh group of companies) until 1925.In South Africa they are called tekkies and in East Africa Tackies allegedly because that is how the rubber went in the sun. In India, white plimsolls are often worn by school children and are known as Keds. The brown version is used by most police and military units as a gym training shoe; they are also part of the uniform of a batman (military). or else”
That was the Keds tie-in…
Keds as a brand were introduced in 1916, by US Rubber (later called Uniroyal). They were first mass-marketed with the designation of “sneakers” in 1917, because the canvas uppers and rubber soles made no noise
SOOO… now you know more about the little white sneaker, and that they came in more colors. Let’s show you some links!
These are the British Army style plimsolls, which you’d use for WWII reenacting, available at What Price Glory:
And THESE are several styles of ‘Keds’ you can still get just about anywhere:
The saddle shoe was introduced in 1906 by Spalding (yes, the same one that makes baskeballs!) Not precisely what you would imagine for athletic footwear, it was actually indeed created with tennis and squash players as its main market. The black ‘saddle’ middle of the shoe helped to stabilize the foot during activity.
This shoe was originally intended for sports, but because of its stylish lines and clean look, it soon became popular with young men and women all over, with all different sorts of clothing!
So to keep your feet comfy and stylish, a retro pair of black-and-white saddle shoes with the bubblegum pink rubber sole just might be the way to go at your next retro event!
