A Spoonful of Glue

Product Description

It's 1930, stock market has crashed, banks are closed, 40 million people live in poverty. Two couples in a small Midwest city decide they are responsible for their own wellbeing. They invent a cleaner that fills an urgent need for household cleaning. Where three operations had been required to wash walls, their new Spic and Span did it in one operation. Read how the cleaner was developed and what happened to the family after the sale to Procter and Gamble, when the new millionaires thought they were responsible for their children's happiness.

From the Author

The saga of SPIC AND SPAN began in 1930; that's when my parents, Harold and Naomi Stenglein, and their friends, Bet and Glenn MacDonald invented it. They sold it to Procter and Gamble in 1945, and our lives were dramatically changed. That, and more is what A SPOONFUL OF GLUE is all about. The Spic and Span name is on the the shelves of stores around the world. It stands as an American Icon, a symbol of initiative and ingenuity. More than that, the very act of creating the product was a shining example of Individual Responsibility; that is, ordinary people in the most horrendous of times believed that their own well-being depended on them, and not the government. The book, A SPOONFUL OF GLUE was started in 1994. I had listened to the voices of my parents, recorded in 1977, and I knew the story needed to be told. Six years and countless revisions later, Harold and Naomi became Mom and Dad again, and I could empathize with my siblings. Our parents had faults, the same as the rest of humanity; but now I know they did the best they knew how to do. They were great.

About the Author

Robert W. Stenglein was nine years old when Spic and Span was invented in 1930, and with his brother and sister was involved in the invention and early development of the new cleaner. Bob has also written The Poignant Sky, the story of his reprise visit to the World War II skies of the South Pacific and adventures as an Army pilot. He is currently at work on a Seniors adventure novel.