I work in Automotive in the Quality Dept. where I am a CMM programmer. I deal with a lot of gages and today I opened up a wooden crate that had a Ford product gage and I saw these laying on top of the gage. Never seen these before. Anyone have a clue just what they are???
Those Ford gumball machines used to be everywhere, grocery stores especially but business of all kinds. Seems to me a penny got two chiclets. Every kid over 40 remembers them.
Yep! Seeing that gumball machine a few posts up brought back a flood of good memories just now. Thanks for posting that!
Yep when I was a kid a 7/11 was something you basically saw in L.A. It was mostly mom and pop grocery stores and those gum/candy dispensers were usually right by the door on the way out so you could put your pennies or nickels in it.
Seems to me there was kind of a fundraising deal to them. They took the profits and donated to the local Jaycees or little league baseball or something. Can still buy them. When I was a little kid the small coins still had at least some purchasing power so there were lots of those coin op machines selling jawbreakers and gum, salted peanuts and cashews. They aren't as common as they were. The Ford machines were always sort of stationed by themselves, usually by the exit.
From their website: "Ford Gum & Machine Company, Inc., headquartered in Akron, New York, was founded in 1913. Ford Gum is the leading manufacturer and distributor of gum balls and gumball machine banks in America, as well as a private label manufacturer of confections of other American brands. Ford Gum has a secondary location in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Some of Ford Gum’s most prominent products are its gumball machine banks, as well as its Big League Chew Bubblegum and licensed gum for Just Born, Inc. and Smarties. Ford Gum has more than 500,000 gum ball machines in operation across the country. Ford Gum is the only remaining gumball manufacturer in the United States, and as a small business, leadership understands that working with elected officials is critical to maintain an economically sustainable business. Ford Gum is significantly impacted by federal policies, such as the current U.S. sugar program, that artificially inflate the cost of domestic sugar yet allow the duty-free importation of lower-priced sugar in competitive finished goods. Ford Gum is involved in the local community through sponsorship of a Little League baseball team and serves as a national sponsor of the Cal Ripken Baseball Camp. The company also sponsors the local school district’s second-grade class and plans events throughout the school year. Ford Gum has a significant recycling program for its factory and facilities to preserve the local ecosystem."
Gotta love the wild man from Borneo! He chewed them after Spanky fed him sausages. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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