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Saturday, January 06, 2018

LEGENDARY COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 1-6-18

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 2 personal favorites are ones from R. D. Grier & Sons and Firestone Stores with the tires encircling them. Usually, this type is found with a myriad of burn marks on the tire left by a lingering cigarette. These two are perfect. The tires look like they would fit on a lawn mower and have all the markings of a full size Good Year and Firestone tire.

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.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.

Anonymous said...

i was brought up in a household where both of my parents smoked. i picked up the habit when i was 14 yrs. old and kicked the habit when i was 27 yrs. old. although i don't like smoking now and don't even like to smell that "odor", i loved it back in the day. thanks for the memories...

Anonymous said...

My parents had an ashtray from McCready Hospital in Crisfield which was sold (I think) to commemorate an anniversary. It was off white with a picture of the hospital in the center. I gave it away some years ago. I find it amusing that a hospital would have had this type of item but I guess smoking was not considered too dangerous to your health about 30+ years ago.

Anonymous said...

My father smoked cigars and my mother complained about him missing the ashtray with his ashes.To remedy that problem he took a hubcap off of a 1957 Chevy and used it for an ashtray.

Sam Smullen said...

Thanks George as usual you put a spark of the past in my heart. Especially the Oaks Drive Inn. I worked evenings as a dishwasher and anything else the chefs told me to do. Wow the traffic around that place!

Anonymous said...

When I was a kid in the seventies my pediatrician Dr.Kolls regularly smoked cigars during the examination.

Anonymous said...

Morgan, Kolls and Anderson saw to many an area youngster.
Anyone get a trip after your exam to the soda fountain at the pharmacy next door ?

Anonymous said...

And Dr. Kolls lived to be very old, so I don't think the cigars hurt him too much.