Although this vintage photo is of a Loblaw’s store in Youngstown, Ohio, it is reminiscent of the one the Celaschi Family shopped at in Chaleroi, Pa.
The Savvy Shopper of Charleroi
sister nancy CELASCHI SHARES THE STORY OF HOW HER mother
created some special CHRISTMAS MAGIC with coupons
Sister Nancy Celaschi
I was a freshman in high school at the time, and already in the spring of that year, every time I went to the local grocery store — Loblaw’s in Charleroi, Pa. — my mother would remind me not to “forget the P-C’s!” This was in the days after S&H Green Stamps, but our local store had these purchase coupons called “P-C’s” where, for every 50 cents you spent, you could buy a five-cent coupon that could then be redeemed for prizes.
It seemed like an obsession with her: Just put the purchases away. More importantly, where are the P-C’s? She would count them like a miser, and I could only imagine what she was saving for.
Fast forward to late fall when Mom left the house with her stash and went to the market to order her prizes. A few days later, she took me to the store and we came home loaded down with packages — two authentic Pittsburgh Steelers uniforms (complete with shoulder pads and kneepads), two Steelers helmets, two footballs, a baby doll, a stroller and a doll crib (some assembly required).
Being the younger of her two children, I was sure these toys were not for us, so I asked what she was planning to do with all these gifts. Her reply was that they were for my godfather’s children. My godfather lived in a neighboring town and worked at U.S. Steel, which was the company chosen to strike that year. He had been without work for months, relying on government surplus food to feed his wife and four children, three of them about 7 years old and under. There would be no money for Christmas gifts for those children this year.
About a week before Christmas, my godfather came alone one evening to visit us, something very unusual. We exchanged visits over the holidays, but it was always the whole family that would come. After he had some coffee and cookies and we visited for a while, we loaded the “goods” into his car and off he drove.
I thought nothing more of it until shortly before Christmas when I was helping my Mom wrap gifts for all the family members — yes, everyone got gifts. When I asked about a certain thing I was wrapping, she said, “That’s for Bobby, and this one’s for Ronnie, and this is for Mary Ann” — my godfather’s three young children. I looked at her and said, “But Mom, you already sent their gifts to them when their dad came to visit.” Her look said to me, “And still you do not understand?”
“Those were their gifts from Santa Claus,” Mom explained. “When we go to visit them during Christmas week, we will bring them our gifts.”
I was never so proud of my mother as I was the evening we went to their house and watched as the children delightedly showed us all the wonderful toys Santa had brought them. She knelt by the tree with them and looked so surprised as they pulled out one gift after another, oohing and aahing all the while and telling them how good they must have been to get so many toys.
This ad from the early 1960s shows some of the wonderful items for which Loblaw’s coveted P-C’s could be redeemed.