Red text with illustration of people entering an illuminated church door on a light green background.

Illustration of six animal characters in clothes surrounding a wood plank with red text.

The Get Along Gang is a group of young anthropomorphic animals created by American Greetings in 1983. The characters met in an abandoned caboose and had adventures that highlighted the importance of teamwork, diversity, and friendship. Because of the success of the books and merchandise, the show was given one season (13 episodes) on CBS television from 1984-1985, but remained on the air in rerun through 1986. The Get Along Gang was also picked up by other distributors for merchandise after its television debut including Tomy toys, Scholastic Press, and Marvel Comics. Although the series waned in popularity, the animated series was later rebroadcast on multiple television stations in the 90s and 00s, later resulting in several versions of DVD releases with varying episodes.

Image of fingerprint with mouse face on a yellow background with red text.

The "Thumbody" characters were originally created by Neil Baker in the 1960s. He began his art by using customer fingerprints before creating a line of designs using his own fingerprint that was in use from the 1960s through the 1980s. Thumb Things, now doing business as Button Works, Inc., featured a series of thumbprint drawings with catchy phrases all using the word thumb. The designs were not initally copyrighted and were sold or gifted as art pieces for several years before any commercial attention.

The Mental Health Association used the phrase, "I'm thumbody," and copied the idea behind Baker's drawings creating and copyrighting their own line of thumbprint characters advocating for mental health awareness that still used Baker's original thumbprint from drawings they had purchased.

James R. Williams of Williams & Associates of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania also claimed and copyrighted the thumbprint idea. The “I’m Thumbody” character was created and used for a promotion for First Federal Savings & Loan in the 1970s. The bank gave away promotional merchandise featuring the thumb-buddies including beach towels, buttons, and other memorabilia.

Yellow smiley in center with Logo for eyes and blue text for mouth, surrounded by blue bacground with yellow text.

The Blue Island Lions Club has a yearly parade celebrating the 4th of July. For this event, the club sold buttons along the parade route to raise funds to continue to put on the parades. The 1977 parade button was designed by Win Nash, on the theme “jubilation 77.” The 1977 parade included a junior parade before the senior parade, with over 100 entries and featured floats, bands, drum and bugle corps, marching units, decorated vehicles, and public figures such as local congressmen, the sheriff of Cook county, and even the Governor of Illinois. After the parade, there were other festivities such as musical performances, a sky divers show, and fireworks.

The Lion's Club is a secular service club organization, founded in Oak Brook, Illinois, which promotes volunteerism, community involvement, and environmental awareness, among other things. 

Illustration of flag with red and blue text on white background

The Blue Island Lions Club has a yearly parade to celebrate the 4th of July. Lions Club members sold buttons along the parade route to raise funds to continue to put on the 4th of July parades and festivities. The 1958 parade included more than 76 trombones and the festivities that followed included a double-header little league game as well as drum-bugle corps competitions. The Lion's Club is a secular service club organization, founded in Oak Brook, Illinois, which promotes volunteerism, community involvement, and environmental awareness, amongst other things.

Blue text on white background.

The 1961 Blue Island, Illinois Lions Club annual 4th of July Parade marked the 15th anniversary of the parade and had a budget of $6,500 due to previous years button sales along the parade route. The theme of the parade was Civil War Centennial. Another centennial being celebrated at the same time was of St. Benedict Catholic parish in Blue Island, Illinois. The Lion's Club is a secular service club organization, founded in Oak Brook, Illinois, which promotes volunteerism, community involvement, and environmental awareness, among other things.

White text with blue stripe on red background.

1960 marked the 14th annual Fourth of July Parade put on by the Blue Island Lions Club, as well as the 125th birthday of the city of Blue Island. The Lion’s Club is a secular service club organization which promotes volunteerism, community involvement, and environmental awareness. Each year, the Lion’s Club sold buttons along the parade route to raise money for club activities and future events. The parade started with the Junior Parade, followed by the Senior Parade. Amateur and professional floats were welcome, and parade entries could also participate in nearby parades in Harvey and Dolton, as they were not scheduled at the same time. Later in the evening, there was live entertainment before a firework display at the high school.

White text on green banner with green text on white background.

The Blue Island, Illinois, Lions Club held an annual 4th of July parade each year, with entries in both a senior and junior parade. The 1956 parade marked the 10th anniversary of the event and boasted over 100 entries in the senior parade, a 20 ft long missile with two sets of fins on a trailer, accompanied by tour men. Each year, the Lions Club sold buttons along the route, this year costing $1, to raise funds for Lions Club activities and future events. Additionally, the Girl Scouts of Blue Island were out along the parade route selling drinks and snacks to raise money to wipe out their camp debt.

The Lion's Club is a secular service club organization, founded in Oak Brook, Illinois, which promotes volunteerism.

Red text with blue lines above and below with black text on a white background

"National Switch Week" was part of an advertising campaign by Burger King in 1983, which encouraged people to "switch" to Burger King. Burger King often struggled to differentiate itself from McDonald's and other fast food restaurants and build brand loyalty from a customer base who would often choose the best value over name recognition. The "Switcher" campaign is thought to have inspired the 2002 Apple campaign of the same name, in which customers who had switched from Microsoft to Apple appeared in commercials praising the new computers.

Drawing of a covered wagon on a beach with a lake, pine tree, and teepee. Red text over drawing. Green outer band with white text.

The Minnesota Centennial Historical Pageant held at Lake Bronson State Park was one of several held across the state at various locations. These all had a standard script written by Harold Searls. The serious of historical pageants intended to convey the state’s history to a large audience. These pageants did not dive too deeply into their themes and instead focused on bolstering the state’s tourist industry and thus commemorated the nineteenth century legends of the state. The breakdown of the ninety minute pageant includes the history of Minnesota from the prologue through seven episodes, all with musical accompaniment, and ends with all singing the state song, "Hail to Minnesota." Some shows included local native American tribes.

Minnesota was established as a territory on March 3rd, 1849, and became a state in 1858. In 1947, the Minnesota Legislature passed an act designating 1949 as the territorial centennial year of Minnesota’s founding and as such appropriated funds to the Minnesota Historical Society for the execution of events, radio broadcasts, and publications for the year-long celebration. Minnesota’s centennial prompted a few significant changes throughout the state, including the creation of a more extensive K-12 school curricula to include Minnesota history, signage and publicity marking historic sites and trails, the strengthening of historical societies across Minnesota, and a directory of Minnesota-related films.