I remember 'em well...they came in all sorts of varieties and shapes -- we kids would love to piss off skoo teachers by doing "Pocket Snaps"; impossible to get busted.
I remember 'em well...they came in all sorts of varieties and shapes -- we kids would love to piss off skoo teachers by doing "Pocket Snaps"; impossible to get busted.
My mammaw used to use one of those to scare birds out of her fruit trees!
But I do recall arguing with my brother over the deeds found in boxes of Quaker Oats ...we thought if we collected enough of them, we could stand on one foot on our "land"
some day.
Quaker Oats set up an Illinois corporation called the Klondike Big Inch Land Company. The company promptly bought a 19.11 acre parcel of moose pasture in the Yukon south of Dawson. After carefully measuring out the land in 1 square inch parcels, Quaker Oats began putting 21 million "Deeds" into carefully marked boxes of cereal. On each show, Sergeant Preston hawked the "Deeds" to all the little kiddies. In a few short weeks, the cereal boxes flew off the shelves and the promotion ended.
I was the proud owner of one of those "Deeds" to what just had to be a lode gold claim. I remember well dreaming of just how I would develop my mine. Alas, the Yukon Lands Branch wasn't so thrilled. The cost to actually issue a deed for each square inch would have been prohibitive so claim holders held "Title" to a square inch but it was a loose title. By 1965 Quaker Oats tired of being contacted on a regular basis by junior miners and let the land taxes in the amount of $37.20 lapse. The government of the Yukon was once again the owner. To this day Quaker Oats, the Yukon Lands Branch and the Yukon Department of Commerce still get phone calls from now older but no wiser land "Owners."
