How About A little Lead With Your Beverage?

Years ago Gas Stations would give away premium items with their Gas. This went all the way back to the 60s and 70s, with many stations giving away all sorts of things, like toy Noah’s Ark, stuffed dinosaurs and of course drinking glasses. One of the best things any gas station ever gave away were NFL glasses. Shell gave away these small frosted glasses, but the ones that you can find everywhere were given away by Mobile. They gave away a lot of them and they all had the logo and or helmet of your local team. One of the glasses they gave away were these small frosted glasses. They were cool little items. Seemed like everyone in my extended family had a bunch of them. My uncle had a friend that worked at one of the locations and he hooked everyone he knew up with more than they would ever need. Especially the later models. Most people, though, were required to buy eight gallons of gas to get their hands on one. As for the 1988 frosted glasses? Well, it turned out that the paint used may have contained lead. It all started when the Massachusetts Health authority discovered that the enamel used on the glasses contained more than the allowable amount. They cautioned parents not to let small children drink from them and to be safe use them strictly as a decorative item. Even though, the company that made them claimed them to be safe, stating “You’d have to soak that glass in acid and then drink the acid to get the lead in your mouth.”. Even so, Mobile recalled the glasses nationally and moved on to new less-lead-filled models. We kept ours, but my parents and especially my always safety conscious Grandpa made it known that we were forever forbidden from drinking from them. A while back my father unloaded all of his Mobile glasses on me, mostly the later styles. So now i have two or three boxes worth. Below is a gallery of some of the glasses. You can find a ton on eBay, but I always get nervous buying glass items from there, seems like there would be a good possibility you’d get a box of shattered glass to your doorstep. The Bills Glasses are mine.

Fisher Peanuts Stein

Another great item form the 80s in the glassware department is the Fisher Peanut steins. They were solid glass mugs filled with peanuts that could be used to pour your favorite brew into when you were finished with the peanuts. I got my fathers as well. This mug was an early go to mug for watching the game and enjoying a cold one. One beer per quarter was always his policy. These are also available on eBay and some of them actually still have the top! I have not yet seen any with nuts still in them, thankfully.

Project Flashback: Browns Helmet

About five or six years ago my brother owed me a bit of money, so when he saw an old Wilson Youth F2052 Suspension helmet at a Thrift store, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to pay me back. The helmet was blue with a white mask and the initials “RP” inside. It sat as it was on a shelf for a few years. Fast forward and I had just begun my new hobby of refurbishing helmets and I saw it as another opportunity. This would be the second helmet I would ever do. I painted it a nice bright orange and as was the case of its era, I hand painted the stripes instead of using a decal then sprayed it with clear coat. There you have it, a Jim Brown era Browns helmet. Although this helmet would not fit Jim. In fact it is said hardly any helmet fit his head, having to have a to use an extra wide “Husky” Riddell RK 2.

What I Watched: 1977 Redskins Vs. Buccaneers

This game was really not memorable nor exciting by modern football standards. This matchup took place in week four of the Bucs second season. They were of course in the midst of their famous 0-26 franchise start and would not get their first win for another nine weeks or so. The Redskins Billy Kilmer and the Bucs Gary Huff combined for an exciting 172 passing yards with zero passing Touchdowns. It was a real defensive struggle, with the Redskins shutting out the Buccaneers 10-0. I will admit I only watched this to see those glorious uniforms.

Helmet of The Day: Lombardi Redskins

I have always loved the so-called Lombardi Redskins yellow/gold helmets with the letter “R” and feather. Lombardi wanted to change to the gold helmets to try and take some of the luck his Packers team had in the same color helmets all of those years. Unfortunately he would die prior to the 1970 season and never get a chance to see his team in them. They wore them for two seasons in 1970 and 1971, bringing them back as a throwback in 2007.