When Fermi wrote about Wacky Packages, I couldn't remember that name at all (and I still cannot), but I immediately remembered the look because I own a bunch of similar "packages." The only difference is that mine are in sticker form instead of trading-card form.
I have zero recollection of buying these stickers because I would normally never have wasted my money (which I earned as a three-hour-a-week school janitor) on pictures that took only five or ten seconds to enjoy before you were finished with them, and I certainly didn't like gum either (which is how these stickers were packaged). I had much more useful items to purchase with my money in those days, like comic books, camera film and an occasional 10¢ candy bar or a 25¢ bag of Dorito's chips.
Yet it seems apparent that I acquired them somehow. I have a very strong feeling that my stickers probably came free inside boxes of breakfast cereal; however, I cannot find any proof of this on the internet.
The picture below (which I just scanned today after reading Fermi's post last night) shows a few of those stickers on the front cover of my tablet from my freshman year of high school (1975-76) in South Dakota. Yes, I still have that tablet for some reason, probably because I was a nostalgic pack rat for far too many years (although I'm glad I was one/am one). Even though my tablet was used mostly during the 1975-76 school year, all of my stickers (I have just learned) are from the 14th Series, which was mostly sold between April and June of 1975.
Also, at the bottom of the tablet, you will notice my initials (with the rest of my name erased in Photoshop). The item in front of the "W" (actually, it's at the end of my first name) is a star. Also, the lone sticker at the bottom right is really on the back cover of the tablet.
I also have a relatively large sheet of construction paper somewhere in the house with a bunch of these stickers on them. They are the "originals" of each sticker. The ones on my tablet cover are duplicates (that's the only reason I would have stuck them to something where they could easily be damaged). Today I searched through about fifteen boxes of "heirlooms" for that sheet, which has constantly been IN MY WAY for many years when I didn't want it; but, naturally, now that I want it, it is nowhere to be found (if I could only tell you how often that happens, and how frustrating it is...).
Concluding editorial note: I must admit that I was ambivalent about Wacky Packages even as a teenager. I loved their concept and their look, and I had long been making up my own silly names for people and products in those days, too (still do); however, I didn't think the Wacky Packages humor was even remotely funny most of the time -- some of the time, yes, but not most of the time.
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P.S. As for the famous Keep On Truckin' poster, I have always remembered it for two reasons: 1.) It was advertised in every comic book in the early 1970s, and, 2.) when I was in the 8th grade, a very pretty classmate of mine named Kristi (a cheerleader) drew her own unique version of that poster for our 8th-grade basketball team. It said something like, "The Raiders Just Keep On Truckin'." For a while, it hung on the wall at the top of the bleachers in the southwest corner of the gym, and I remember staring at it a lot and being completely amazed that someone so young could have done such a professional job. It is my belief that she did not trace it because her other posters were clearly her own unique creations, and they were just as good. I could be wrong, though.
