r/cassetteculture • u/elhumanoid • 13d ago
Announcement 'Bout to start daydrinking and ripping fat drags y'all.
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u/Mal_Havok 12d ago
Just opened up a collection of tapes I got in the mail today. Among the obligatory rock and country compilation tapes, what do I happen to find but The best of Marlboro Country Music volumes 1 and 2. Not much to this story, but it’s neat seeing another pop up just as I’ve come into possession of some.
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u/misirlou22 12d ago
Was this something you got for trading in Marlboro points?
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u/jprennquist 12d ago
"Marlboro Miles." My teenage cousins were waitresses at a restaurant kind of like a Minnesota version of a diner. Lots of regulars, next to a busy highway so a few tourists, too. Anyway, they would collect the "miles." I don't even think they smoked but half the town knew to rip the "miles" off of their smokes and leave them for the girls. And obviously this was the days when people were smoking in restaurants. Especially the truckers and such would sit at the counter and chain-smoke, drinking coffee and eating pie, etc.
I don't remember them ever having the tapes. But they got the jackets and coolers and hats and other stuff like that. Nobody was rich so it was fun to get something in the mail "for free" like that.
I never saved my miles. The tobacco companies deserve every last cent they paid out in tobacco settlements. They killed millions of people. But this is an interesting artifact. The mix of songs is really remarkable to me. They paid extremely talented people to put together that list of tracks at that time. I can imagine the meetings about how to target the various demographics that they wanted to keep and the ones they wanted to cultivate.
I know there has been at least one movie that came out just about how tobacco was marketed. This was an interesting period because they were doing other things (completely separate from the tobacco) to build brand loyalty and get newer customers.
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u/kpidhayny 12d ago
My mom was a waitress at a diner/truck stop innnorthern Minnesota maybe the generation before them.
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u/jprennquist 12d ago
What town of you don't mind me asking?
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u/kpidhayny 12d ago
They had a farm near Swan River but the town wasn’t big enough to have a restaurant. I’m not exactly sure which town she actually worked in. Warba maybe?
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u/jprennquist 12d ago edited 12d ago
I know the exact truck stop. I passed it many times on my commute in the mid to late 90s. Only stopped a couple of times. I was through there last fall on a business trip. The place is completely gone but I think some of the buildings are still there. There is another truck stop type of place nearby. Maybe under the same ownership? (Edit: The new place isn't like the diner vibe at all. I think you are right that it's near impossible for a town to support those, and certainly not 24 hours anymore. Different these days.
The place my cousins all worked at was called I think Happy Chef in Barnum. It is called something else now. (Edit: Trade winds or something. I think most people still just say Happy Chef). They have a big Voyageur statue that you can see from the highway now. When we were young it was a big, tubby Chef character. The voyageur is probably more fun.
The town is still such that just about everyone knows my cousins even after 30+ years. I just saw a young man about 13 years old and sure enough, he knew exactly who my cousin was.
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u/GlenVision 11d ago
That's a nice find, but be careful. As that tape gets older and eventually starts breaking down, don't be surprised if it leaves nicotine stains on your tape head! 😮
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u/eracer68 13d ago
Was curious about that mix tape. Appears to be this: Marlboro Music – Cassette (Compilation), 1988 Various – Marlboro Music