In the late 40’s and 50’s we used to decorate windows for Christmas with a product named Gold Seal Glass Wax. Its Christmastime slogan was:
Holiday housecleaning simple with ‘Glass Wax.”
Some mistakenly think its full name was Johnson’s Glass Wax, but they have it confused with Johnson’s GloCoat. Oddly, I don’t recall any Christmastime housecleaning where Glass Wax was in-play. Instead, I recall another holiday use for it.
First, let me describe Glass Wax. The stuff was a thick, pink liquid. Even the can was pink. Cleaning was not one of my hobbies, nor have I grown to enjoy it today. I’m not exactly sure of the intended purpose of Glass Wax. Was it for cleaning glass? Was it for using on furniture? I’d guess it was for cleaning glass, but I cannot imagine waxing glass. My mother had it in the house for a practical cleaning purpose, I’m sure.
The only interesting use was in applying it through stencils to our 50’s picture window to create snowy Christmas scenes. These were easily removed in January, by wiping with a damp rag or sponge. I assume that the glass was cleaner afterward.
This was fun stuff.. I believe today’s kids, even with their iPods and PS3s, would like making Glass Wax stencils. Stenciled designs dried as white, not pink, by the way.
The memory of the pink can seems more recent than 1959. Glass Wax survived until 2001. Where can we find Glass Wax today? It is listed on eBay but not in many more places. It seems that some citizen discovered that it was flammable.
Was Glass Wax killed off as a potential terrorism ingredient? Perhaps it got the axe because we could otherwise live forever if we could only find a bunk in a sterile, non-skid bubble.
That’s it for this year, folks. Thanks for reading. Next year, we’ll have a new theme for 2008 Rogers-years stories.