Since Bob grew up in a small town, there were not many billboards where he lived. He said it was a lot more common to find them in the countryside of Kansas City, but his family rarely went up that way. He did recall that even though he personally did not see many, he knew they were a popular form of advertising and they have become more scarce today. Since he did grow up in the country he did see a lot of painted barns. He recalled specifically Pepsi and Coca Cola as two brands that would be seen advertising on barns.
Bob did not get to go to big towns that much as kid so his window shopping experience is pretty low. He said that when he would go shopping he never really went window shopping, although every time you'd walk in front of a store it is almost impossible to not notice the store front. He specifically remembers the Ford dealership in his town was a part of the town's square and they would have physical cars on display. He also recalls clothing stores and hardware stores having window displays, but he never really paid attention to them unless he was specifically shopping for what they were selling.
On the road he remembers the Burma Shave billboards which are consecutive billboards that you read as you traveled down the road. To pass time in the car he said him and his siblings would count how many different brands of cars they would meet and they would play the alphabet game with signs where you try and find the alphabet on different signs. Most surprising to me was my grandpa having a pet raccoon growing up. This came up in conversation when he was talking about how they would pass the time on the road and he nonchalantly slipped in that they would take their pet raccoon, Pamela, in the car with them for entertainment.
We shifted our conversation towards posters and he told me that he had to share a room his entire childhood with both his sister and his brother so he never really had any posters in his room. He said his sister would always try and hang up posters in their room but his dad would come in and take them down. They had a pretty neutral house when it came to decor. We also spent some time talking about propaganda posters and found out that he has a hatred for them. He told me that during this time the posters would have been about the Korean War. He saw them on posters and also on TV and he was not fond of any of them, and he said that even today he really does not like any propaganda posters. His reasoning is "I just don't agree with anything they were saying".
In the mail he would receive the Sears Roebuck and the Montgomery Ward catalogs. He said that his children were more excited to look at them than he was and they would sit there and circle the things they wanted (this reminded me of what my brother and I used to do with the catalogs we would get in the mail). When he was a kid though, he said he enjoyed looking at the rifles -- he finally got one when he was old enough. He said back then you could buy just about anything and their family used to buy farm related things from them. He also said one everyone was done looking at them they would stack them on top of each other since they were so thick and would use them as booster seats at the dining room table.
An example of a Pepsi Cola barn ad
On the road he remembers the Burma Shave billboards which are consecutive billboards that you read as you traveled down the road. To pass time in the car he said him and his siblings would count how many different brands of cars they would meet and they would play the alphabet game with signs where you try and find the alphabet on different signs. Most surprising to me was my grandpa having a pet raccoon growing up. This came up in conversation when he was talking about how they would pass the time on the road and he nonchalantly slipped in that they would take their pet raccoon, Pamela, in the car with them for entertainment.
We shifted our conversation towards posters and he told me that he had to share a room his entire childhood with both his sister and his brother so he never really had any posters in his room. He said his sister would always try and hang up posters in their room but his dad would come in and take them down. They had a pretty neutral house when it came to decor. We also spent some time talking about propaganda posters and found out that he has a hatred for them. He told me that during this time the posters would have been about the Korean War. He saw them on posters and also on TV and he was not fond of any of them, and he said that even today he really does not like any propaganda posters. His reasoning is "I just don't agree with anything they were saying".
In the mail he would receive the Sears Roebuck and the Montgomery Ward catalogs. He said that his children were more excited to look at them than he was and they would sit there and circle the things they wanted (this reminded me of what my brother and I used to do with the catalogs we would get in the mail). When he was a kid though, he said he enjoyed looking at the rifles -- he finally got one when he was old enough. He said back then you could buy just about anything and their family used to buy farm related things from them. He also said one everyone was done looking at them they would stack them on top of each other since they were so thick and would use them as booster seats at the dining room table.
"Sears and Montgomery Ward were basically Amazon in book form."Talking about how advertising has changed he believes that paper advertising has not changed very much. He believes that the radio and TV still have ads, but far less than what they used to be. He said they aren't as plentiful as they used to be and it almost costs more to put an ad on TV than you'd make in revenue. Overall, he does believe that advertising is a good thing and is a staple in marketing and how the world works.
"Advertising is the livelihood for good work force and for people. It's the way to get their word out for the product they're selling."
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