Seeing Spots

Poet Gelett Burgess wrote these famous lines:  I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one.  But I can tell you, anyhow, I'd rather see than be one.

The KC Matchgirl supposes the same would be true about a polka-dotted cow, the mascot for Polka Dot Milk and Ice Cream.  A family-owned dairy located in Hastings, Minnesota, bottled their first jug of milk in 1956.  Available in certain areas in Minnesota and neighboring state Wisconsin, the dairy produces the usual range of liquid milk products, along with cream cheese and cottage cheese.  Jugs of orange juice and punch seem to have replaced the afore-mentioned ice cream.

"Dotty", the blue-dotted bovine, was born when Wally Pettit and Herb Koch decided to enter the dairy business.  After a few years, Pettit became the sole owner.  Wanting locations that would offer only his Polka-Dot brand, he opened his own little markets (superettes), named for that famous "little man no bigger than a thumb".

Tom Thumb made his first published appearance in English folk tales in 1621, and there are various supermarket chains across the country that operate under the same name but are not affiliated.  Pettit's chain of superettes grew to offer gasoline and other conveniences, operating 131 stores when they sold/closed that division in 2004.

Pettit passed in 2005, but the family continues operating the Polka Dot Dairy, with Dotty still gracing every jug and bottle.

Note:  It was unusual for stores to be open every day during the 1960's, when this matchbook was produced.