Golden State Dairy (Part 3)

After Al Wiseman developed a swell character called "The Little Prospector" for The Golden State Dairy in the late 1940's, you'd think he'd take a break and get some sleep for a change. But no, Al went right on developin' until he had conjured up a brand-new milk-loving character- "The Wizard of Ohs and Ahs!"

Al's daughter Merrily mentioned the "Wizard" in an email the other day after checking out the blog. She also provided an illuminating behind-the-scenes look at the "pre-Dennis" Wiseman household:

"As I was looking at the things listed on the site, I noticed there wasn't anything about the 'Wizard of Ohs and Ahs'. That was a campaign he did for the milk company [Golden State Dairy] and they supplied us with all the free milk products we could use. They made up a huge portion of what we ate in those days. The match company money helped with the rest of groceries and the rent and we ate the fish we caught off of the cement boat in Seacliff Beach.

"I can remember a time when we were going to have the minister over for dinner and had little or no money for that dinner. We went down for our fishing trip to the boat and took Jim with us on a leash so he wouldn't fall overboard. Dad had given him a toy pole so he could fish too. His little line went just below the water and after a few minutes his little pole was bent double and he said, "Dad, I think I've got something." My dad leapt over beside him and grabbed the pole and brought up a 7 lb. rubber mouth perch.

"God does work in mysterious ways! With some of the carrots and peas that Jan had planted in the back yard and some potato soup Mom had made we had a beautiful meal for the minister and a few more that week. This is one of my favorite memories of the times we were the 'richest.'

"...If I think of more things, I will email them to you. One thing I don't know if you know is that Dad always envied Jan's abstracts and her simple line drawings and wished he could do those too. She is still producing and I hope I figure out how to get them on line for her soon. She is still doing poetry and a beautiful funny line of Cypress tree cards. She is amazing!

"My husband and I are managing a set of apartments in Monterey.

"Thanks again for the wonderful job you are doing.
Give yourself a hug,
Merrily"

Thanks for sharing your memories, Merrily! And please keep writing.

Above: The cover to a Golden State Dairy pamphlet.

Above: The same pamphlet magically inverted in Photoshop to better see the linework.

Golden State Dairy Posts:
Part 1/Part 2/Part 3/Part 4/Part 5/Part 6/Part 7/Part 8