United American Tiki-Tiki and other ’50s products

The most difficult columns to write fall on or around Christmas, Independence Day, and Rizal Day because all the stock material had been used in the last three decades. Researching for a Christmas topic this year meant opening bound issues of 1950s periodicals that I acquired for a song many years ago: Philippines Free Press, This Week, Sunday Times Magazine, Chronicle Magazine, Progress, etc. Some are water-damaged, others scarred by silverfish, and one, which I want to throw away, looks all right but has back issues devoured by termites. All the issues fall between January and October, except Woman’s World, which brings us back in time to Christmas 1958.

Unlike the other periodicals printed on acidic newsprint, yellowed and brittle with age, the magazine Woman’s World was printed on sturdy paper stock that looks as fresh as the day it was issued 59 years ago. Lucie Tambuatco, the editor’s name, didn’t ring a bell, but the fictionists whose stories appeared in the Christmas issue, did: Kerima Tuvera-Polotan, Nita Umali-Berthelsen, and Celso Carunungan, whose gender and story about snow seemed out of place in a woman’s magazine for the tropics. However, Exequiel Molina wrote a Man’s column for the magazine that was presumably bought by the wife but browsed by the husband.

Naturally, there were features on fashion, beauty, home and gardening, plus staples like movie reviews, horoscope (one for women, another for men), and an advice column called “Helen, Help us.” Advertisements were dim reminders of a generation before mine: United American Tiki-Tiki, Ysmael Steel, Belman Drug Corp., Gregg Shoes, Sherwin-Williams and Dutch Boy Paint, Eskinol, Coconut Soy Sauce from the Hoc Guan Co. of Malabon, Bireley’s bottled chocolate drink, Sulfa Hair Tonic, Nullo tablets to stop body odor that were “eaten like candy, safe as a lettuce leaf,” Rooster and Santa Claus Coffee from La Campana food products, Lady’s Choice: Salad Dressing, Sandwich Spread, and Mayonnaise, Gold Medal Flour, Silver Swan and Lauriat Premium Soy Sauce, Maja perfume, and soap filled a page and was completely in Spanish. There were also: Yco Floor Wax, Philippine Airlines, and even Renault cars distributed by Tabacalera that, I didn’t know, had branched out from cigars.

The gift suggestions were quite detailed. Toys for children had to be age-appropriate. For those one year old and below: unbreakable and washable toy animals, preferably teddy bears and pandas, rubber balls, alphabet blocks with round edges and soft rag dolls; one-and-a-half years: hobby horse, wheelbarrow, pedal cars, kiddie carts, stuffed Disney animal characters, colored lightweight toys; two-three years: blackboard and chalk, jumbo crayons, paint,
picture books, building bricks; three-four years: farmyard set, large jig-saw sets, floating toys; four-five years: velocipedes, cash registers, circus sets, doctor’s sets, Cowboy and Indian costumes, horns, hand clappers and dominoes; five-six years: same as four-five years, or needle and embroidery sets, simple card games, mechanical toys, but not trains on tracks; six-seven years: constructor sets, erector toys, skates, electric trains, dolls, doll houses, skipping rope, balls; seven-nine years: football or baseball boxing gloves, chemical sets with microscope, glove puppets, gardening tools, work baskets, carpentry tools, easy-to-read print books; 9-12 years: stamp albums, working model sets, table tennis sets, electrical construction sets, checkers, puzzles, archery and badminton sets, and punching bags.

All these gifts seem obsolete in our time when children are kept busy and quiet with a parent’s tablet or cell phone. They serve as the new 24/7 yaya that doesn’t require food, a salary and SSS benefits.

Gift suggestions “For the man you love” came with the stores to shop in: The most expensive was a Sport Shirt jacket at P19.95 from Hamilton-Brown Escolta and the cheapest plaid polo shirts at P6.75 from 15 cents and up Rizal Avenue. Novelties were: golf ash trays at P14.95 from Rustan’s San Marcelino, Scottish plaid set at P12.50 from Soriente Santos Escolta, and leatherette pencil well at P8.50 from Heacock’s Dasmariñas.

To compare and contrast gift-giving then and now reveal a barometer of taste and the economy that can be written up as a unique doctoral dissertation.

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