When I wrote about the Peven store booklet that you pasted stamps in and when full you were rewarded by cash to be spent on merchandise at the store, I received quite a few responses.

Wilma Cline told me she used to go to the store, Dick Foreman said his folks traded at the store, Don Richcreek stopped by the house to tell me he remembered the store also, and we had a nice visit.

I had an e-mail from Mary Jo Mersereau telling me she used to live across the street from the store and used to go there for her mother, as she traded there.

I got a call from Jack Thomas, who remembered going to the Peven store, as did my friend, Helen Leich.

Then I had a call from Chuck Geegan to tell me that when Lou Ann replaced the old store with their big farm store, he was the first butcher in it.

I’m sure folks will recall, probably about the same time as the Peven stamp book, there were other stores had the same gimmick going.

But it was a much bigger deal, though, so you received some pretty nice things with their filled books of stamps.

There were TV (Top Value), S&H (Sperry and Hutchinson) and, if I’m not mistaken, A&P stores had Plaid stamp books.

I remember Peg and I used to get TV stamps at the old Kroger store and the Hatfield Economy Drug store.

Maybe some gas stations had TV stamps, also.

I still have some old half-filled TV books, plus some S&H stamps and books, and some Plaid stamps.

As I way, my wife collected mostly TV stamps.

There was a TV stamp redemption store in Benton Harbor and we made quite a few trips there to trade our filled books for nice things.

Our kids were small at the time. I recall getting metal high chairs, a baby scale and an electric baby bottle warmer.

Also, lots of gifts to give away.

Peg remembered getting a bracelet of opals that she gave to our granddaughter not long ago.

TV stamps were yellow and red, S&H were green and red.

Also, another stamp book was Diamond Thrift that had just green stamps.

The TV book called for 100 stamps for a single page, but for a larger purchase you could get a larger stamp worth 10 single ones, and another larger stamp worth 50 single ones.

Two of these filled a page.

I’ll probably get e-mails and calls from people who recalled these books.

Boy, you know the way things are, I kinda see a trend to the old days of the ’30s.

A job is hard to find and lots of folks are having a hard time just keeping ownership of their homes.

Also, people are turning for help for food, which they thought would never happen to them, so that’s why it reminds me of the bad times of the 1930s.

Back then, we had to be frugal to survive, didn’t we?

“Cardinal Charlie” Gill writes a nostalgic weekly column about growing up in the Grand Old City. E-mail him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.