“My family arrived in Australia for a three-year-stay in 1956,” writes Simon Dixon of Bolton Point. “Having been raised alongside Green Shield stamps (C8) in the UK, the rewards concept wasn’t new to us and my mother soon discovered that Kellogg’s was offering silverware in exchange for tokens from its product. On the menu for the next three years, Corn Flakes and All-Bran featured daily as we raced the clock before our return to England. We succeeded, and the cutlery came back with us, only to return when my father retired and migrated to Australia in 1966. I followed with my family in 1970. Both parents are no longer with us, but the cutlery is still in use, appearing on my table daily. While I still regularly eat All-Bran (because it keeps you regular), I still can’t face Corn Flakes.”
Malcolm Nicholson from Katoomba writes: “When I was a kid, Marchant soft drinks used to give away kites if you collected enough bottle tops. I remember sending off the required number and nothing arrived. A letter of complaint followed and one duly arrived, followed by a second one a month late. They were great kites, but they usually ended up in trees.”
“It’s elementary, my dear Graeme Finn (C8), you probably just need to check your Hotmail to look out for the missing model number of your Email cooker,” suggests Mary Carde of Parrearra (Qld). “Or maybe just try turning it off and on again.”
Brian Harris of Port Macquarie has an eyewitness account of his letter box theft (C8): “Thieves had trouble removing our letter box so they took the whole gate. We were watching them but didn’t say anything for fear they would take offence.”
“I’ve never had a letter box stolen, but I’ve been letter box bombed twice,” reveals Jeff Evans of Cambewarra. “Once in Greystanes in the 1980s and a second 20 years later in Cambewarra. Caught the first culprit but not the second. The family were amazed that I thought it hilarious. A touch of karma from the Fifties?”
“In my misspent youth around Lithgow, you knew cracker night was approaching because the high school principal would remove his letterbox about a week before and reinstate it a week after,” recalls Peter Holt of Pokolbin.
“Forget letterboxes,” says Peter Gibbs of Yass. “We put them in chokos and used them as hand grenades.” Incoming!
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