You all know Kroger, I assume. One of the nation’s grocery store chains. I first encountered Kroger as a Northrup King seed salesman in the south, and the stores struck me as nicer anything we had back in Minnesota. More cosmopolitan and modern, for some reason.

This is Toppie, the mascot for Top Value stamps. Although he’s pink here, he’s red elsewhere; I suspect that has to do with the color preferred by Kroger. The checked pattern of his flesh may be an attempt to give him a tartan, since in the iconography of those days tartan = Scottish = thrifty. The puffy hat was also a suggestion of Scottishness, since tam o’ sham also appeared on the Gold Bond mascot. Who, as you can see, was so entirely Scottish he could quote the works of Ewen McTeagle from heart.

Were I in Japan, I would buy this. Could someone who has lots of yen send it to me out of the goodness of your heart? Why, thank you.