Neely-Dorsey: Do You Remember Dishes in Laundry Detergent and Drinking Glasses in Oatmeal?

In the 1950s and ’60s, Duz Detergent delighted buyers by including a piece of 22K-trimmed Golden Wheat dinnerware in each box of their laundry soap.

There were platters, luncheon plates, salad plates and bread & butter plates. And then soup bowls, berry bowls, vegetable bowls and cups with saucers. And then there were sugars and creamers and gravy boats, too. There were even coordinated juice glasses and tumblers.

The dinnerware featuring images of wheat was produced by the Homer-Laughlin company.

In the 1950s, Duz Detergent began the promotional campaign that involved including a piece of 22K gold-trimmed Golden Wheat dinnerware in each box of laundry soap. They began this promotion to gain sales over Tide detergent. Each month an extra plate, bowl or serving piece was added to boxes of Duz to entice customers to buy the soap in order to acquire the dinnerware.

Many people still collect Golden Wheat dishes as a matter of nostalgia, having grown up with their parents or grandparents acquiring and using this dinnerware.

Also, in the ’60s, the Quaker Oats Company offered Anchor Hocking glassware pieces in boxes of their oatmeal. The glassware featured a starburst design and is often referred to as the oatmeal pattern.

These pieces were manufactured for mass domestic distribution in packages of oatmeal. They include: a berry bowl, a punch cup, saucers, a herbert or custard bowl, a soap dish, a juice tumbler, a short tumbler and a water tumbler.

We had many of those pieces in the house growing up. I remember being so delighted to find the new prize inside each time we opened the oatmeal box!

The pieces are apparently very durable, too!

Several years ago, while doing some yard work at my parent’s home, the home I grew up in and where they have lived for 50 years, I found one of the juice glasses in the ground all covered with dirt without a scratch or chip on it!

I was even more delighted at my found treasure than I had been those many years earlier when it was new!

Patricia Neely-Dorsey is the author of two books of poetry, Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia-A Life In Poems and My Magnolia Memories and Musings-In Poems. Through her poems, the author hopes to protect, preserve and promote the rich cultural history and heritage of her state and region along with providing more positive images than all of the negative images usually portrayed. Patricia lives in Tupelo with her husband James, son Henry and Miniature Schnauzer, Happy. The author has been named a Goodwill Ambassador for the state by Governor Phil Bryant. Her slogan is “Always, Always Celebrating the South and Promoting a Positive Mississippi ” Her website is www.patricianeelydorsey.com and her email is magnoliagirl21@yahoo.com.