Hey everybody. Welcome to Retell Seller, an ephemera podcast where I uncover forgotten stories and the ephemera people leave behind. I’m Angie a reseller of 10 years, and I’ll share one of those snippets with you. Let’s see what today’s find has to say.
I’d grabbed a bunch of loose Winfield patterns for woodworking at an estate sale,
and once I started flipping through them, I found this single little wax paper bag. It’s the kind of thing that was probably never meant to be kept. It’s creased down the middle. It’s been folded for years. It carried something home once, did its job and instead of throwing it away, it was tucked away.
The bag, I’m sure used to be white, and now it’s a slight yellow along with a pink hue due to the pink lettering. There’s a small illustration repeated over and over on both sides, and it’s of a young girl made of simple lines, wearing a bonnet, holding a flower. Her eyes are closed and she’s smiling.
Over the top of her bonnet, it has the trademark saying, “And I made it myself.” I think her facial expression does give off the feeling of being proud, whatever it was that she made. The bottom says, trademark, copyright. Harold Mangelsen and Sons, 1977.
In 1961, Harold and Bernice Mangelsen opened a Ben Franklin in Omaha, Nebraska. They said it was to be a self-service store with a variety of departments, including jewelry, dry goods, electrical goods, glassware, candy, and much more.
And using newspapers.com, I found quite a few advertisements from 1966 with a variety of items for sale. Most of the articles seemed to be long, skinny ads filled with multiple squares, talking about different offerings for sale, with one being a bamboo basket or clothes hamper with lid. The sizes were 20” tall by 15” in diameter or 24” tall, 18” diameter, and they ranged in price from a $1.99 to $5.39. I’ll take 10 of those please. I may be a bit obsessed with baskets.
There was another where you could make your own lamp. It says it’s easier than you think. This beautiful marble lamp can easily be made by simply gluing cracked marbles into metal cylinders.
And the next ad is titled Saturday Stop Shopper Value in which you can get either a Hershey Candy Bar or Wrigley chewing gum for 3 cents each.
If you missed my episode on Wrigley chewing Gum, I’ll link to it in the show notes and to see the photos of everything I talk about, don’t forget to visit the blog or stop by my YouTube channel to see videos of each episode. And while you’re there, please consider liking and subscribing. I do not like advertising. Thank you.
10 years after opening their Ben Franklin, the store name changed to HW Mangelsen and Sons, with their sons being Bill, Thomas, David, and Hal. It’s still open today and on their website, it’s known as Mangelsen’s, Everything That Inspires! It’s still in Omaha, utilizing a 37,000 square foot crafter’s dream.
Outside of the adorable little bag that gave way to this story, I love the other interesting things I came across. Um, not having anything to do with the original topic, maybe, but one of the first things I found out about the Mangelsen’s store was not about their store at all.
It was about “That A
wful Tunnel.” I’m guessing if you live in or are familiar with Omaha, you know the story of it, but according to the timeline on the Mangelsen’s store website, it said in 1973, there was a public hearing about removing that awful tunnel. In 1974, Harold started an advertising campaign saying “Just north of that awful tunnel.”
And when I did some searching, I found old advertisements that included this very phrase. Many of them were from an appliance store. They were advertising things like a four piece living room set for $266.82 a bedroom set for $297.10. A singer industrial machine for $359. They were open Sundays, one block south of Awful Tunnel.
In 1974, a section of the Omaha World Herald published what they called the Public Pulse, And someone wrote in with a title called “Awful Tunnel. Not so awful.” They go on to say, “It gripes me when people write or say “that awful tunnel”. Chances are they have never used it much. In the early morning on my way to work, I have used that awful tunnel many times. If the traffic is heavy, I stop and signal or honk my horn for the truck to come through. A broad smile and a wave made my whole day.”
Another article, which came out in ‘79 says, “If you don’t intend to do anything with the Fontanel Hotel Mayor, for Pete’s sake, at least do something with that awful tunnel around it. Paint it, paper it, anything!”
While I never came across an actual article talking about when the tunnel was finally demolished, I did find one from 1986 saying “The awful tunnel of 84th Street quote “disappeared” eight years ago, but.
Some of the advertisements of Mangelsen’s really made you feel like you could find anything you ever wanted or needed.
An ad from ‘75 stated they were having a liquid silver sale, which would be for jewelry, regular price of $20 per ounce, approximate size 0.046 by 3.5 millimeter. Priced at $12.88. One ounce per customer please.
The same ad goes on to promote their professional watch repair where immediate attention will be given to those in the medical profession and small jobs can be completed while you shop.
Later in 1976, the last person to go through that awful tunnel was Harold Mangelsen. And a year after that, Mangelsen was in the paper saying, in part, the store will immediately dub the bypass, “That delightful detour” and will refer to the store in future advertising as being “Just north of that delightful detour”.
In 1977, Mangelsen’s had their first annual witches tea. They held it in their parking lot and on their site they show a line of kids in various costumes, and I’m wondering if the little bag I have was being used at that time, which would be awesome.
The timeline goes on to say in 1978, Thomas Mangelsen, one of Harold and Bernice’s other sons, opened his first Mangelsen “Images of Nature” galleries.
And you may know Thomas is one of the most well-known wildlife photographers, being the one who, in 1988, captured the infamous photograph of a grizzly bear open mouthed with a salmon about to jump right in. It’s called “Catch of the Day”. On his website, he says nothing about catch of the day could have been rigorously choreographed by me. Rather, I had to put myself into a position and wait. Wait, wait. Hoping, waiting more and praying for magic to happen.
Fast forward now to 1993. Son David takes sole ownership of the store and now his three kids handle the day-to-day operations. So a local family opened up a shop in 1961, and while lots of things have changed over time, it’s still running strong.
Now, being that we’re in Illinois, we know construction all too well, and while this is not the same at all as the awful tunnel, it made me think of how we have a road that in both the North and southbound lanes, a construction worker draws faces.
So when you’re driving north, you see a smiley face, and when you’re heading south you see a winking, smiley face. And I could have that mixed up, but pretty sure this particular road has been worked on more than once throughout the years. And the faces are always put back and I love seeing them.
As for Ben Franklin, I find it really interesting that I find this bag. I learned that it originally started with a Ben Franklin, and now we have one that should be opening very shortly in a couple of towns over. So, I’m really excited to see what the Ben Franklin looks like today.
And locally, We’ve had a Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, and of course Joanne’s, which closed down. And I’ve always loved to craft myself and I’ve tried various things throughout the years, but nothing really ever stuck with me to where I would do it on a consistent basis. Uh, but back in 2012.
I had a boss who I have to say I was not a fan of at the time, um, and she was talking about how she sewed and I let her know throughout the conversation that we didn’t know anything about sewing. So after talking a long time, it turned into her saying that she’d be willing to teach us how to make a skirt and we could do classes at the office if we were interested.
And I’m so happy I jumped on the chance at it and I went and bought my first sewing machine, spent a hundred dollars on a Singer Promise, which I still have today. And it works great. and once we had our machines, we went back to the store and picked out our pattern and fabric.
We met over a handful of Saturdays and I absolutely had a blast. Um, she was so helpful, had the patience needed, and she really enjoyed it too. You could tell.
And I should say, I worked for the public school system, uh, in the administration office, and she herself was a former teacher.
I think it’s funny that on the job side, I wasn’t a fan of hers, but in a setting where she was doing what she loved, I in turn loved her back. It was a great experience.
When it comes to the skirt, it wouldn’t fit in the little bag I have, but I can definitely say, “And I made it myself.”
Do you consider yourself a creative person? And what are the ways you’re putting it out there into the world?
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