This is what he told me about the item:

Reddy Kilowatt, the renowned corporate mascot of the Alabama Power Company has been around for almost a century. This very rare patch was used during Vietnam by members of the 592nd Engineer Detachment, which was a unit beneath the U.S. Army Engineering Command during the war. The patch is 3.7 inches across and was used in the mid to late 1960s.

Here’s a shirt with the patch on it:

And here’s a closer look at the patch:

Credit: “Sergeant Richard Johnson, author of “Tiger Patterns” and Seeds of Victory.”

Thanks Richard!

We never had a television. If we were real good on Wednesday nights we could go up to [inaudible] house. He had the first television in Randolph and we could watch Walt Disney. And if we were really, really good we stay and watch the Reddy Kilowatt hour. And that was a kind of mystery sort of thing hosted by Reddy Kilowatt who was the electric icon with lightning bolt arms and legs. I can remember Dad took us fishing up to Leadmine Pond which meant that we had to walk up across the bridge and behind the power plant and he said as an aside, “You know, Reddy Kilowatt lives in there.” Well, you’re walking behind the plant; there’s all these windows and l couldn’t…I just spent all my time looking through the windows looking for Reddy Kilowatt. But, I didn’t see him.

Since I spend a lot of time in the Lorain Public Library pouring over microfilm of newspapers from the 1950s and 1960s, it seems that almost every day or so there was an ad for Ohio Edison featuring — who else? — Reddy Kilowatt! I even seem to recall even seeing his image on some of the local electric utility buildings, such as up on the Ohio Edison building on Lake Avenue in Elyria Township.

There’s another Reddy sighting here, from a 1968 Cleveland Indians scorecard. Nice.

Big, big thanks to GFHS alum Kari H. for the bit of trivia and for sending in these photos!

A school folder.

A graduating class.

A homecoming pin.

A GFHS sign.

A vintage drawing of Reddy.

Memorabilia from 1978.

When I came home from work on Friday, it was to a surprise package in the mail…from West Virginia…from someone I’ve never met before. Which is weird…that it came to my house, because usually I have things sent to Snap Snap, as someone is usually there to receive packages…so, I was thinking it was someone I knew…

Only it wasn’t…

I opened the package and what did I find?

A Reddy Kilowatt Christmas From the Kitchen vintage cookbook (and holiday decorating idea book) And I dropped dead…OK…I didn’t die, but I did cry.

Oh yes, I did.

I was so very touched that someone thought of me, and sent along something so treasured. Someone I seemingly didn’t even know…There’s not a lot of people who even know who Reddy Kilowatt is…except for one person I didn’t even think of…

She also was the ringleader of a group of young GI’s wives who stole Reddy-Kilowatt from the front of the electric company in Baton Rouge and hid him in her bedroom until the end of the war. (The MPs talked a lot about the braze[n]ness of that burglary at the USO and she just listened and nodded sympathetically.)

Dang!