Dixie Cups and Submarines

Across the Fence #344

I had a Dixie Cup ice cream recently and it just wasn’t the same. Oh, the ice cream was fine, but a Dixie Cup will always be missing something for those of us who remember when there were pictures on the bottom of the lids. When you pried up the lid, you never knew whose picture you might find. It was usually a famous cowboy, like Roy Rogers, or a Hollywood star. At least that was the case when I remember seeing them.

I decided to look Dixie Cups up on the Internet. I found out those pictures on the lids were used for 24 years, from 1930 to 1954. In that case, I was only ten years old when they discontinued the pictures. I could have sworn that I was much older when I was still finding pictures on the lids.

The first Dixie lids illustrated circus animals and performers in full color. They were associated with the Dixie circus radio stories of 1930, and they lasted for two years. The next group of lids appearing in 1932, was called “The Nature Series,” and featured dogs, birds, fish, and butterflies. In 1931, a special set of U.S. president lids was produced exclusively for the Philadelphia Dairy Products Company. In 1933, the first movie star series began. The first cowboy to appear was a profile of Ken Maynard in 1934.

I remember Roy Rogers’ picture, and discovered he was not only King of the Cowboys, but also king of the cowboy lids. His likeness appeared 12 times. The leading Hollywood stars were Bing Crosby and Johnny Mack Brown. Ginger Rogers and Betty Grable were the leading actresses.

There were also baseball stars featured in 1952 and 1953. Milwaukee Braves left-handed pitcher, Warren Spahn, was one of them. I found out that only 24 covers were issued each year. During the years of World War II, covers depicting the war effort were used.

I didn’t remember that there was a thin piece of wax paper over the top of the picture to protect the ink from the ice cream. When you pried up the lid, you removed the wax paper to reveal the picture. Dixie printed the pictures in blue during the even numbered years from 1938 to 1952, and a brownish color in odd numbered years from 1937 to 1953.

How many of you remember all that? Did any of you collect the different Dixie Cup lids? Most of the lids can now be found for $2 to $3 in mint condition, except for a few of the more popular ones, like John Wayne and Hopalong Cassidy. They can fetch $25 or more. If you collected the baseball series of 1952, many of those lids can bring $100 because of their rarity. I know we had a bunch of Dixie lids at one time, but I suspect they were long ago relegated to the trash burn pile and went up in a cloud of smoke, along with many other “treasures.”

We can’t forget that we also got ice cream in those Dixie Cups. That was always a special treat. They even came with a small wooden spoon to eat the ice cream with. They resembled those wooden sticks a doctor puts in your mouth to make you say, “Ahhhh.” Except the Dixie spoons had a flat spoon shape on one end. Do you remember those spoons?

It’s surprising what memories are triggered by a simple thing like a Dixie Cup filled with ice cream, and what pleasure they brought to us when we were young. Remembering those picture lids, also brought back memories of cereal box offerings from the 1950’s.

Do you remember Baking Powder Submarines? They were introduced in 1954, during the time of the first nuclear powered submarine. They were advertised on Kellogg’s cereal boxes. You had to mail in a quarter, along with the cereal boxtop to prove you had bought the cereal. It was a great advertising gimmick to sell cereal to kids. I remember sending in my quarter and the boxtop and then not so patiently waiting the two or three weeks for it to arrive. My folks didn’t need to ask me to get the mail, because I anxiously checked the mailbox every day, hoping I’d find a package for me inside.

It was a great day when the package, addressed to me, finally arrived. I might add, it was always a big deal for us kids to receive a letter or package in the mail. It didn’t happen very often. We filled that little submarine, about four inches long, with Ma’s baking powder, filled the bathroom sink, and watched in wonder as our little submarine cruised around, under the water! When it ran out of fuel (baking powder) it would rise to the surface and we’d have to refuel it. I wonder how much of Ma’s baking powder we “wasted.” I guess it didn’t take much to amuse us. I think my brother, David, probably sent for one too, or the two of us would have been fighting over who was the commander of the one sub.

Later, a smaller version of the submarine came in the cereal box, and also Navy frogmen that operated on baking powder.

Kellogg’s cereal and Dixie Cups were our ticket to some simple pleasures when we were young. I think the food involved was secondary.