was rich with the advertising of our local merchants. And the character
and collective pride of our little town in the 1950s,
before
(like the rest of
American society) it was overrun by national and regional retail chains, can be
discerned in that advertising.
Some of these local businesses were the
places where we shopped, banked, dined, were entertained, where we gassed up our cars
or just hung out. Some provided us
with jobs when we were kids, and some sponsored our Little League or other
teams that we competed on outside of school. Many were owned and operated by
our neighbors and friends.
As illustrated below, unsold spaces between ads on the pages of
were filled with the slogan, "SHOP
WITH PRIDE AT OCEANSIDE,"
until
around 1960, when the slogan was replaced with the substantially less
creative, "Please Patronize Our Advertisers," (No doubt, the
change was the result of pressure from merchants in Baldwin, Rockville Centre
and Island Park who were finding it increasingly in their best interests to
advertise in the Oceanside paper.)
So here's a sample. The ads
that follow contain old familiar names that
should spark fond memories for all of us.
Remember the excitement after
the start of each school year when the new cars came out?
Well, this
rakish new beauty (the car, not the rocket ship) arrived in our senior year: