White text on a black background.

The American tradition of Trick or Treating dates back to around the 1930's when it was generally seen as a nuisance.  By the 1950's it was more commonly accepted, and was even mentioned in the television show, Ozzie and Harriet.  The tradition of Trick or Treating in America can find its likely origins in late 19th and early 20th century Irish and Scottish immigrants, whose children would go door to door in disguise asking for food and coins in a custom called guising, which is still done today on Halloween in some parts of Scotland.

White button with 3 green shamrocks.  Above are the words "Irish mistletoe"  below it reads "pucker up!"

Chris Davenport - Dok, a commercial artist, began her career making jewelry out of cornstarch and baking soda to help pay her way through college. Chris worked at Family Circle magazine and later designed needlepoint and embroidery kits in the 1970's and 80's. Her designs were licensed by various companies including Enesco. The Irish mistletoe design and shamrock motif reflect Chris's Irish heritage and pay homage to her Irish ancestors immigration to the U.S. in 1849.

Illustration of two dragons smoking cigarettes with black text across the top on a white background

The artist of this particular button is Sandra Boynton. Sandra is not only an American artist and illustrator; she also authors books and songs, and directs and produces music. Born in New Jersey, Sandra grew up in a Quaker community where she learned the value of having independent thoughts, individualism, and to be nonviolent. Boynton’s art began appearing in the 1970s on card designs for a company called Recycled Paper Greetings. Boynton’s designs were humorous and helped to lead the commercial movement of Alternative Cards. Over sixty million copies of Sandra’s children’s books and over 500 million copies of Sandra’s cards have been sold between the year 1970 and 2003. The unnamed animals and characters that Sandra has drawn were never licensed for reproduction or adaptation. She has designed for many companies including calendars, wallpaper, bedding, paper good, etc. One can assume that Sandra drew the dragons on this button specifically for this anti-smoking advertisement. 

White text with a white border on a green background.   Similar to a road sign.

"Welcome To Fear City" most likely refers to a pamphlet created by the New York Council for Public Safety in 1975. At the time, New York City was in a financial crisis and the mayor had proposed cuts to municipal services that would include layoffs. This upset the police, firefighters and other labor unions which responded by creating a campaign to warn tourists of how unsafe the city would be because of these cuts. The city ended up taking them to court to try to stop the pamphlet but the unions won and were allowed to distribute it.

A black button with green text inside a pink circle.

Gag me with a spoon was a common expression that was popularized by the Valley Girl movement in California's San Fernando Valley during the 1980's. The slang term was used in reference to something that was extremely unpleasant.

Black text on a yellow background. 

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Black text on pink background.

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Circle slash over an image of a yellow dinosaur wearing a black hat and driving a pink car with a license plate that reads "ROADHOG" in the center with black text over a yellow boarder.

This button encourages the idea of ride-sharing or car pooling and not driving alone.  Carpooling is seen as a more environmentally friendly and sustainable way to travel, reducing carbon emissions, traffic, and parking needs.

Black text and an illustration on a yellow background

NES is a company that works with businesses and government agencies to make sure that employees and the environment are protected. The company provides education in the form of environmental and industrial hygiene consulting through workshops, training, and other personalized services. Some of the issues that NES discusses are indoor air quality, mold, water damage and exposure to hazardous materials. Not only does NES work to insure that work environments are safe, they also want to make sure that companies are following health, safety and environmental rules and regulations. NES has worked with companies such as; Pacific Gas and Electric and The Sacramento Bee. The company is based in California but helps companies throughout the country.

An oxidizer is an agent used to support combustion. Hydrogen peroxide would be an example of an oxidizer. The symbol shown is the hazard symbol for oxidizer.  

Capitalized text on top, lower case on bottom with top background in orange and yellow.

This is a popular sentiment celebrating the weekend. The labor movement fought to have 8 hour workdays for 5 days a week. This was largely realized by the Fair Labor Standards Act in the U.S. in 1937, giving Americans a couple of days to relax and/or party down.