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Wednesday, 04 September 2013

The Hellman's Mayonnaise Caper

By Alice Steele

It was the mid-sixties when my guy and I drove across country to a new job and a new life on the west coast.

We settled in nicely and enjoyed the people, the weather and the surroundings. But, we wrote to my sister-in-law back in up-state New York, finding our favorite brands was often something of a challenge.

Take Hellman's Mayonnaise, for example. It was nowhere to be found! Yes, there was this Best Foods but was it as good as Hellman's? We weren't sure.

My sister-in-law had a gleeful sense of humor.

She spent most of her days in a medical college lab teaching “meds & dents” and had the perfect solution to our dilemma.

She purchased the most mammoth jar of Hellman's Mayonnaise she could find. She then searched her lab for the perfect box to send it in. This container had "fragile" and "this side up" emblazoned on all four sides and at about a foot square, it was the correct size, so she pounced on it.

However, it had pictured in agonizingly clear detail, the original contents of the box: hypodermic needles.

Now, remember, this is the mid-sixties. When all the flower children were also converging on our newly adopted town of San Francisco and were experimenting with anything that could be swallowed, smoked or injected.

I am still amazed that this package arrived safely; but it did.

The Hellman's mayonnaise? Well, then we read the label. In small print, it read, "sold west of the Rockies as Best Foods."

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