Carnival Games of Long Ago Gave Food As The Prize For Winning
Food Was The Winner’s Prize At The Carnival
Ham, Bacon, and Coffee Game on Craft’s Big 2o Shows
Long before welfare and food stamps, hungry people had few places to turn for relief. Nobody knows for sure when ‘groceries’ given away as prizes started but it became quite popular in the 1930’s when the great depression created long lines of increasingly desperate people and putting supper on the table for a family became harder and harder to do. Carnival Games of long ago gave food as the prize for winning
The popularity continued right through the second world war when staples like bacon, coffee and sugar were only available with scarce ration coupons.
During these years the “country store” was launched and for a dime, the customer could spin a large horizontal wheel and perhaps win a bushel basket of groceries, a colorful Beacon blanket or various household goods and items.
Variations on this theme were tried and the popularity of the “Grocery Wheel” lasted well into the late 1950’s.
Here we see a ‘ham & bacon joint’ flashed with groceries on the Crafts 20 Big Shows in the 1930’s.