WERE I to hazard a guess about the derivation or etymology of the word “stationery,” without looking it up in Merriam-Webster or Funk & Wagnalls, I’d say it’s because writing paper remains stationary on the desk, while the pen or pencil, having writ, moves on. If a sign style was ever emblematic of NYC’s grocery stores, newsstands and delicatessens from say the 1940s through the 1970s, it’s this scheme with movable plastic letters that appeared on countless such signs around town. Yet, I’m still amazed when one pops up someplace, as here on Braddock Avenue and 237th Street in Bellerose.
The green letters on white background (often gold letters on green backgrounds were used) were offered to shopkeepers by local Coca-Cola bottling companies. The letters were attached to the background to spell out whatever the vendor wanted and are referred to as the “privilege panel.”
The white band on red Coca-Cola signage, known as the “dynamic ribbon,” was created by designers Lippincott & Margulies in 1969 as a graphic reminder of Coke’s iconic green curved bottles. The AI robot also reports that that red square also has a name, the “Arden Square.” The history of various Coca-Cola logos over the years is related on its website.
It might be hard to fathom it now but writing paper was heavily promoted in corner stores selling newspapers, candy, cigarettes etc. for much of the 20th century. Only in recent years has texting and various PM schemes on social media has supplanted letter writing as a chief means of communication. For example, from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, I had a number of “pen pals” all over the USA, and my tightly-spaced, handwritten letters often numbered between 15 and 20 pages, front and back. Horror writer H.P. Lovecraft is often considered one of the great epistolarians of all time; his letters, on a myriad of subjects and themes, were gathered into several volumes by publisher Arkham House in the1960s.
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6/23/26
5 comments
Seal test Ice Cream was another big provider of those signs.Oh yeah.
I always liked those old signs. Do you know if there’s a name for the letter font used on the privilege panels?
Since he could never seem to write with a pen, Charlie Brown had to make do with a pencil pal.
When I was a child I asked my mother what “stationery” meant, and she told me, and said “If they carry greeting cards, they usually also carry blank paper and envelopes.”
Looks like the twin of Eddie’s Sweet Shop on Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills.
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