HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER

Ashtrays

Another iconic item that has gone by the wayside is the advertising ashtray. I have always collected the square ones with a 4-digit phone number from Salisbury. But like any collector, I have relaxed my standards. Since I couldn’t find enough to fill my collector craving, I started collecting any ashtray from Salisbury. There are ashtrays from hotels, motels, restaurants, drive-ins, clubs/bars, energy/transportation companies, banks, insurance companies, miscellaneous businesses, events and one generic one with a sailboat on it. They tell a story of life in Salisbury that evaporated years ago. Now that it is not fashionable (or healthy) to smoke anymore, the advertising ashtray has disappeared.

         

I collected match books when I was in high school, but the quantity I amassed caused my mother to end my hobby. She said she was afraid that the whole mess could go up in flames and destroy our home. I didn’t know how to collect match books and if I had just taken the matches out, she probably wouldn’t have had a problem with them. I regret that I don’t have them now, because I’m sure a lot of Salisbury history went into the trash.

         

Some of the ashtrays I have found tell me things that I never knew. I have found four different ashtrays from Andrew J. Evans. He lived behind me on Holland Avenue and sold “America’s finest lamps”. I played basketball with his son, Jackie, every day in my back yard and never knew his father sold lamps.

         

There were two ways that the ashtrays found their way into the hands of the public. The first was that they were given away as advertising items. The second was that it was filched from the place of issue. They represent a history of Salisbury by advertising such places as Victor Lynn Lines, a familiar sight on the south side of the harbor from 1921 to the discontinuance of its boat service in 1954.

         

My personal favorite is the one from R. D. Grier & Sons with the tire encircling it. Usually, this type is found with a myriad of burn marks on the tire left by a lingering cigarette. I found this one about a year ago, so there is always something out there.

         

The ashtrays from the old Wicomico Hotel and the William Penn Hotel tell of a bustling downtown in years gone by. Other downtown businesses represented are the Chantry House, the Farmers & Merchants Bank, the County Trust Company of Maryland, Harris J. Riggin Agency, Booth & Brown Insurance and Avery Hall Insurance.

         

Out Main St. was the Union Bus Terminal next to Mrs. Blaine Drive-in. Many of the businesses are familiar names even to late comers to the Salisbury area. Names such as E. S. Adkins, Johnny’s and Sammy’s, the Oaks Drive-in, Buck’s Radiator Service, Eastern Shore Glass Co. and Benedict the Florist jump out at you as familiar Salisbury establishments. Some places have earned their notoriety by their contribution to Salisbury’s night life. The Pines and the Blue Moon are two of the night spots represented by ashtrays in my collection. These and memories are all that is left of these places.