Oh, thank you, Alice! I LOVED the Hamm's commercials! I also loved the Hamm's lamps (which looked as if the water was flowing, canoes rowing, etcet) which were in Midwestern (read: Wisconsin) taverns during the '50s and early '60s.

My mother was from Stetsonville, Wisconsin (population 319 -- 4 taverns) and my father was from Colby. When we'd go "Up North" to visit, we'd (my parents and us kids) stop first at John Doctor's Tavern in Stetsonville (multi-colored lights on the Wurlitzer jukebox, stuffed deer heads, flying squirrels and other wildlife on the walls), move to Jakey's, then to Fisher's, etc. and see everyone in town. Taverns were kid-friendly -- we'd crawl around under the pinball machines, have the adults buy us packets of Planter's Peanuts and candy bars.

These places were, as one waitress described The Press Room, truly "family gin mills".

Linn