Shocking discovery: Arab crate labels!

Who knew?  Who noticed?   Why, after all we were only shopping.   Yet there they’ve been, for at least as far back as the 1920s:   Lurking in plain sight at the street vendor’s stall.  Brazenly visible at the neighborhood grocer.  Skulking in the supermarket produce aisle.  Worming their way into the everyday life of trusting Americans,  disguised as decent, family-man, wholesome fruit and vegetable advertising.   Out of Gayle Quinnell’s scariest nightmares come….     Arab crate labels!

I was able to find all of these at just one of the several crate label sites I have bookmarked, and it only took me about 20 minutes.

Lovely, aren’t they? And there’s even a Droste effect label too!

What’s that?  Don’t see it?  OK, take a closer look at the camel’s back:

Oooh.  Little discoveries like this make your kindly old Auntie Tild unreasonably happy.

It’s too bad, tho, that even back in the 50s,  Mr. Bagdasarian * (any relation to  Ross “Alvin & the Chipmunks” Bagdasarian,  I wonder?) of Bagdad brand lug box label fame, felt compelled to offer his potential customers a non-Arabic alternative label for his grapes.

But then, we must remember that there have always been some Gayle Quinnells among us.

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* Update:   Well, I’m happy to report that Richard Bagdasarian Inc is still around and still going strong by all accounts.   True, the company was incorporated back in the 50s, but I don’t know exactly when they stopped using the Bagdad label.   You can see from the company URL that they went with the Mr. Grape brand companywide.  Guess they just did what they felt they had to do, but it’s a shame they gave up such a nifty label.

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